Using VR to study pedestrian perception of street design
In my role on local government authority access and inclusion advisory groups my advice is often sought on accessible street design. But reviewing a design on paper or 3D generated (static) models doesn’t provide the complete picture of how a street design will be navigated at different times of the day with varying traffic flow and its associated sounds.
A research paper published on Nature.com in February 2024 has attempted to address this. The paper by Argota Sánchez-Vaquerizo, J., Hausladen, C.I., Mahajan, S. et al. entitled “A virtual reality experiment to study pedestrian perception of future street scenarios.” is a step in the right direction. (the full article can be accessed here: Scientific Reports volume 14, Article number: 4571 (2024)) It’s one of the few articles I have come across that incorporates empirical data such as monitoring heart rates and electrodermal activity.
However this is the tip of the iceberg in relation to realistic simulation of future street design. The authors acknowledge some limitations in their study included the lack of noise, weather conditions and other environmental variables like other street users including bikes, eScooters and others. Future studies need to consider hight levels of realism and complexity including the interactions between pedestrians, vehicles and the environment. For this to be considerably more realistic it also needs to factor in what feedback someone with vision or hearing loss could experience when evaluating their design.
The use of VR holds great potential with future street and building design over the traditional paper or static imagery. However future experiences need to go beyond the basic visual feedback metaphor.
