Speaker
Description
Street vitality is considered a critical indicator for assessing the attractiveness and potential of urban areas, especially in the context of sustainable development. First, street vitality is one of the essential components that shape urban vitality. While street vitality research has primarily focused on macro-level features, such as commercial density, accessibility, and pedestrian volume, research on the micro-level factors has been limited (Fang et al., 2021). Not only do elements of built environment contribute to fostering street vitality, but Mehta (2013) also argued that selective activities, among necessary, selective, and social activities, are the most critical in promoting street vitality. Despite this importance, empirical studies investigating individual perceptions of selective activities and their impact on street vitality remain limited. Second, the characteristics of the built environment and urban design qualities significantly affect individuals’ perceptions and walking behaviors. Ewing et al. (2013) proposed that built environment elements combine to create perceptual factors, which subsequently influence emotional responses and walking behaviors. It is supported by numerous studies that built environments and urban design quality influence pedestrian perception and behavior (Li et al., 2022, Tang and Long, 2019). However, many studies on urban design qualities rely on street-view images taken from a vehicle's perspective (Li et al., 2022, Zhou et al., 2019), which do not sufficiently capture pedestrian activities and interactions. Furthermore, research on individual perceptions of street vitality and the influence of urban design qualities on these perceptions remains limited. This highlights the need for a more pedestrian-focused approach to studying street vitality.
To address these research gaps, this study proposes a comprehensive research framework: (1) employs streetscape images from a pedestrian’s point of view to explore factors influencing street vitality through pedestrian perception and cognition, and (2) investigates urban design qualities and pedestrian activities that contribute to street vitality, as well as streetscape elements that trigger optional pedestrian activities. A total of 100 participants evaluated streetscape environments by assessing urban design qualities. Urban design qualities were categorized into perceptual factors, emotional responses, and overall satisfaction. Perceptual factors consisted of imageability, complexity, transparency, human scale, and enclosure, while emotional responses included safety, interest, comfort, and vitality. Each participant evaluated approximately 200 pairwise comparisons of images for each urban design quality, and the evaluated images were scored using the TrueSkill algorithm. Streetscape images are used to identify built environment features through Panoptic SegFormer for image segmentation and to distinguish pedestrian activities through YOLO for object detection. The streetscape elements derived from image analysis and the scored urban design qualities were statistically analyzed using multilevel path analysis.
Preliminary results indicate that pedestrian volume and optional pedestrian activities positively contribute to street vitality. In terms of perceptual factors, transparency and complexity exhibited positive effects, whereas enclosure showed no statistically significant impact. The primary built environment elements that increase optional activities include wide sidewalks, visual attractions that offer opportunities for observation, and seating areas. These findings underscore the importance of designing urban spaces that facilitate both perceptual and physical engagement to enhance street vitality. These findings contribute to improving urban spatial functionality and ultimately enhancing urban vitality by informing evidence-based urban design and planning strategies.
References
Ewing, R. H., Clemente, O., Neckerman, K. M., Purciel-Hill, M., Quinn, J. W. & Rundle, A. 2013. Measuring urban design: Metrics for livable places, Island Press Washington, DC.
Fang, C., He, S. & Wang, L. 2021. Spatial characterization of urban vitality and the association with various street network metrics from the multi-scalar perspective. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 677910.
Li, Y., Yabuki, N. & Fukuda, T. 2022. Measuring visual walkability perception using panoramic street view images, virtual reality, and deep learning. Sustainable Cities and Society, 86, 104140.
Mehta, V. 2013. The street: a quintessential social public space, Routledge.
Tang, J. & Long, Y. 2019. Measuring visual quality of street space and its temporal variation: Methodology and its application in the Hutong area in Beijing. Landscape and Urban Planning, 191, 103436.
Zhou, H., He, S., Cai, Y., Wang, M. & Su, S. 2019. Social inequalities in neighborhood visual walkability: Using street view imagery and deep learning technologies to facilitate healthy city planning. Sustainable cities and society, 50, 101605.
| Keywords | Pedestrian Environment; Street Vitality; Streetscape Audit; Deep Learning |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
