Public Space and Pedestrian Stress Perception

Knöll, Martin; Miranda, Marianne Halblaub; Cleff, Thomas; Rudolph-Cleff, Annette

doi:10.4324/9781315465456-17

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…isovist area) is found to be positively related to pedestrian stress ratings when compared to an isovist that is typical of several open public spaces (OPSs) (i.e. parks, squares and streets); however, it is negatively related when the study was focused on one OPS, such as a busy transport hub (Halblaub Miranda and Knöll, 2017; Knöll et al., 2019). Dosen and Ostwald (2016) investigated if human perception of a simple space directly correlates with isovist measures while Franz and Wiener (2008) used isovist indicators to quantify environmental configurations and test theories of behavioural and emotional response to environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isovist indicators as a means to relieve pedestrian psycho-physiological stress in Hong Kong

Xiang

Papastefanou

2020

Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science

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The creation of a psychologically friendly outdoor environment has important quality-of-life implications for urban residents who live in cities with extremely high population density, such as Hong Kong. Prospect Refuge Theory is the most widely recognized theory that explains environmental emotional influence by referring to urban planning and architecture, and it can be quantified by applying isovist indicators. We aim to (a) conduct field measurements that record dynamic psycho-physiological stress, (b) calculate isovist indicators by introducing a new indicator-isovist time difference and then analyse their effects on stress, and (c) draw on findings to provide recommendations for urban planning and design. The experiment is conducted for the first time in a high-density city where 30 participants are asked to walk a predefined route. Each participant wears a portable smart band that records skin conductance response and a global positioning system (GPS) that records geographic coordinates. The results demonstrate that (1) an open space with a visual target set at a distance is the dominant factor that creates positive emotions in Hong Kong; (2) the new indicator-isovist time difference (D1) is valuable, as it is more significantly related to stress than the isovist level; (3) the living environment and cultural differences play an important role in the final result, i.e. people in Europe prefer relatively closed spaces while people in Hong Kong feel stress when the space is highly enclosed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isovist indicators as a means to relieve pedestrian psycho-physiological stress in Hong Kong

Xiang

Papastefanou

2020

Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science

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“…However, for pedestrians, much less research has been conducted on SPIs assessing stress, despite its potential impact on people’s health ( 40 ). One of the initial studies on pedestrian stress was conducted in the 1990s and proposed comparing level of service (LOS) categories from A to E and five stress levels.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Level of Pedestrian Stress in Urban Streetscapes

Rodríguez-Valencia

Ortiz-Ramirez

Simancas

et al. 2022

Transportation Research Record

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Several service and performance indicators (SPIs) have recently been developed to evaluate pedestrian infrastructures, such as different walkability indexes and pedestrian level of service (P-LOS). Given that stress has become a popular SPI for bicyclists (level of traffic stress [LTS]), this study addressed stress for pedestrians as an SPI by relating measurable attributes of different urban street segment environments with pedestrian perceived stress. A stress-based pedestrian SPI was proposed to classify street segments into four levels of pedestrian stress. A total of 1,043 pedestrians across 30 segments in Bogotá were surveyed about their perceived stress. Multimodal traffic counts, location audits, and layout dimensions were collected in each segment to estimate an ordered probit model that explained four stress categories. Physical infrastructure attributes and traffic operational conditions were found to affect perceived stress at given locations. The similarities between the proposed stress index with the LTS and P-LOS are discussed, and the proposed SPI is applied to pedestrian infrastructure planning and design in light of sustainable transportation goals.

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