The Effect of Visual Stimuli of Planned Residential Streetscapes on Way Finding Behavior of First Time Visitors

Abstract

This paper is concerned the streetscape visual stimuli making streetscape confusions as well as the visual stimuli making trouble-free bidirectional movements of first time visitors to an area. Pedestrian/ vehicle streets around Saitama University, Japan were selected for the study. One forward movement movie along a streetscape with 5 moms of backward movements from different streetscapes were displayed to a group of subjects. Subjects were asked to select the correct backward movement analogous to the forward movement and a questionnaire was given to fill with the answers for individual’s selection. This method was repeated by changing the forward and backward movies along streetscapes and the group of subjects. A significant variation could be identified in the backward path selection corresponding to the forward movement. Visual stimuli which caused streetscape confusions and the visual stimuli that helpful for correct path selection were identified. The visual stimuli that made streetscape confusions and that made correct selection were significantly similar among different planned streetscape groups.