Assessing In-Motion Urban Visual Perception: Analyzing Urban Features, Design Qualities, and People’s Perception

Understanding urban perception is crucial for comprehending the human-environment relationship and developing healthy cities. Research shows the built environment impacts in-motion perception, such as while walking, benefiting mental and physical wellbeing. Insights into this can inform urban policies, enhancing quality of life. Recent research has significantly advanced the quantification of urban visual perception by leveraging artificial intelligence with the Place Pulse 2.0 dataset, providing a cost-effective method to evaluate perception through street view images. Despite its benefits, challenges remain in accurately capturing perceptions, particularly 'in-motion' perceptions influenced by movement direction. This study introduces a new methodology to quantitatively assess pedestrian perception during a five-minute walk using computer vision and machine learning, exploring the relationship between various street environment aspects and in-motion perception. We found that, first, there are differences in perception, even perceived physical features and design qualities, between assessing walking through directional view and panoramic views images. Consequently, perceptions vary substantially under different environmental features, particularly in areas such as intersections compared to street segments. These diversities highlight the intricate nature of human perception, shaped by both spatial and visual contexts. In our sample the relationship between perceived street environment characteristics and perception while in motion, feeling of boredom and depression are positively correlated with sidewalks and complexity, while depression is negatively correlated with buildings and imageability. Additionally, the perception of liveliness is negatively correlated with complexity. Our research underscores the complex interplay between urban characteristics and pedestrian experiences. This highlights the importance of incorporating dynamic urban perception studies into planning and design to enhance urban life quality. Future studies should further validate these methods across diverse urban contexts and refine the quantification of perceptual quality.