Assessing Perceived Safety of Non-Motorized Travel with Immersive Virtual Reality

The proposed project will benefit Californians by advancing the research and development of a framework for identifying and quantifying non-motorized travelers’ perception of safety, and ultimately identify infrastructure design and technology solutions that better accommodate these travelers’ needs. By creating a successful system, safety for cyclists and pedestrians in California improves through a better understanding of cyclist behavior and ideal bicycle infrastructure. Biking would become a more accessible, widespread form of cheap, eco-friendly, and healthy transportation. The results of this research will be applied in designing, developing, and testing pedestrian-to-vehicle interactions in connected environments to increase the safety and efficiency of these technologies for real-world deployment. This technology can be used by planners and engineers to better design technology and infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians which have direct and indirect impacts on Californian health and the California economy. A public project can leverage the proposed system to assess non-motorized travelers’ perceptions of safety and acceptance of technology, under existing and proposed transportation infrastructure environments, to inform better design guidelines for future transportation investments, thus helping California taxpayers.