Identifying urban stress and bicycle infrastructure relationships: a mixed-methods citizen-science approach

ABSTRACT

Active mobility is considered a key aspect of the mobility revolution and is therefore elementary in combating the climate crisis. However, a lot of research is needed to improve the situation of active mobility, especially concerning inhibiting factors in the choice of active means of transport. For reasons such as the high volume and speed of motorised traffic, heavy noise, and pollution levels, urban space is often associated with increased stress. The generation and provision of stress data are therefore of particularly high importance for urban planning. The citizen-science approach of the BMDV¹- project ESSEM implements a triangulating approach that uses biological markers and standardized questionnaires to make statements about individual ‘stress’. In the future, this should help identify vulnerable groups and better address them in project development and planning. The presented study describes the use of participatory methods based on three ‘stress hotspots’ in Osnabrück, taking into account different forms of cycling infrastructure.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban planning
• cycling planning
• emotion sensing
• EmoCycling
• Citizen science
• active mobility

Acknowledgments

The project ESSEM (“Emotion Sensing for (E-)Bicycle Safety and Mobility Comfort”) is funded by the mFUND program of the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV) under the funding number FKZ 19F2195A. Additional information is available at http://www.essem-projekt.org

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr (engl. The German Federal Ministry Digital Affairs and Transport).