Document Type : ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Authors
1
Laboratory of Architecture, Urbanism and Transport: Habitat, Landscape and Urban Mobility (LAUTr-HPM), Institute of Architecture and Urbanism, University of El Hadj Lakhdar Batna 1, Batna, Algeria
2
Laboratory of Study and Modeling of Architectural and Urban Phenomena from Idea to Use (LEMPAU), Institute of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Batna 1, Batna, Algeria
3
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Salah Boubnider Constantine 3, Constantine, Algeria
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Urban rail can strengthen city image and public-space visibility without necessarily producing equally supportive conditions for station access, walking and waiting. This distinction is particularly relevant in hot-arid cities, where exposed routes and limited shade may constrain everyday use. This study examined whether the perceived urban-image contribution of the Ouargla tramway exceeded the usability of its station environments and how any asymmetry could inform spatially differentiated management priorities.
METHODS: A staged, multi-source mixed-methods case-study design with a partially sequential, expert-informed instrument-development phase combined a survey of 163 adult residents/users, independently coded open-ended responses, and a complementary assessment by 32 experts. The image–usability difference was tested within respondents using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Hodges–Lehmann estimation, and matched rank-biserial effect size. Polychoric exploratory factor analysis and a factor-aligned sensitivity analysis examined the robustness of the measurement structure. Space Syntax, EO–GIS, viewshed, and meteorological evidence contextualised the configurational and environmental conditions of the 16 station areas. Findings were integrated through a joint display because the evidence streams operated at different analytical levels.
FINDINGS: Urban Image was rated more favourably than Station-Area Usability ( versus ). The paired difference was significant ( , ), with a Hodges–Lehmann estimate of 0.375 (95% CI: 0.250–0.500) and a matched rank-biserial correlation of 0.673. Exploratory polychoric analysis suggested two correlated factors, and the factor-aligned sensitivity analysis confirmed the direction of the asymmetry. Shade and vegetation formed the dominant resident-defined priority, while experts prioritised the combined criterion of mobility, accessibility and pedestrian safety, together with climatic adaptation. Spatial analyses differentiated weakly integrated and highly exposed western stations from wider-catchment nodes, local through-movement interfaces and environmentally sensitive eastern contexts.
CONCLUSION: The tramway’s perceived urban-image contribution exceeded the everyday usability of its station interface. The study contributed a perception-led, contextually differentiated diagnosis linking user evaluation, resident priorities, professional assessment and spatial evidence. It positioned access, safety, shade and environmental adaptation as interdependent components of functional public-transport accessibility in hot-arid cities.
Keywords
Subjects
OPEN ACCESS
©2027 The author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
PUBLISHER NOTE
Tehran Urban Research & Planning Centre (TURPC) takes a neutral position about claims on disputed territories, place names, international boundaries, jurisdiction in published maps, and institutional affiliations. TURPC is committed to retracting a paper after its publication if it becomes apparent that there are serious problems in its content, in terms of research and publication ethics (https://www.ijhcum.net/journal/process?ethics).
CITATION METRICS & CAPTURES
Google Scholar | DOAJ | Scopus | EBSCO | Internet Archive |Twitter |Mendeley
CURRENT PUBLISHER
Tehran Urban Research and Planning Center: Tehran Municipality
