ANALYZING PEDESTRIANS' PERCEPTION OF SECURITY IN URBAN STREETS: THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENT ON EEG PATTERN

Abstract

The walkability is a significant indicator of livability of urban areas, which is determined by various factors of street conditions. The security of streets has direct impact on pedestrians’ walking experience and relates to incidence of actual crimes or aggressive behaviors against pedestrians. In order to improve the security level of urban streets and build a comfortable and safe walking environment for citizens, on one hand, it should be figured out what the influential factors of occurrence of security issues are, and on the other hand, it’s also essential to clarify that how pedestrians’ perception of security is influenced. People’s perception is identified to be influenced by external urban environment, therefore the environmental features of urban streets were involved in analysis. This research aims to clarify the effects of built environment and street configuration on pedestrians’ perception of security, by using the technology of electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure the level of psycho-physiological reaction of pedestrians in real-time walking. The correlations between participants’ emotional feelings and environmental features was analyzed, and the gendered and temporal differences of participants’ emotional responses were clarified.