The Subjective Duration of Time in the Experience of Urban Places

Abstract

In a pair of field experiments a relationship between the physical space of streets and individual perceptions of the passing of time was discovered. Within the context of a larger study of the pedestrian experience of urban places, 42 individuals were asked to estimate the duration of time required to walk path segments through different spatial configurations. The results showed statistically significant differences between the estimates for the different paths, consistent across the two experiments and apparently related to spatial attributes of the streets through which the paths passed. From these experiments one can conclude that there is a connection between the designed, physical place and subjective sense of time. The multi-variate nature of the field work makes it impossible to demonstrate specific causal relationships. However, the consistency between the two experiments - following upon previous research - does point to plausible speculations. The implications of these findings for the experience of urban places and urban design interventions are also speculative, requiring further research.