- Email: [email protected]
Nudging Healthier Journeys through Information Design (breakout presentation)
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Abstracts / Journal of Transport & Health 7 (2017) S4–S87
Even the time-honored tradition of “walking the halls” to browse a library is now impossible at the University of Calgary, with most books hermetically sealed in a far-away High Density Library. The prognosis for walking doesn’t look so good, especially in the light of WHO statistics showing that globally, 81% of adolescents aged 11-17 years were insufficiently physically active in 2010. It doesn’t have to be that way. The inane Pokémon Go craze, which came and went in 2016 (Slice Intelligence reports that the game’s paying player base dropped 79% from July to August of that year) teaches us a valuable lesson. Technology can get people off their couches, but only if it appeals to their highest values. Program Description: I’ve advised developers on Augmented Reality (AR) projects from making architectural and historic features visible on smartphones to adding haptic feedback to medical devices, and have also covered this field as a technology writer, attending and speaking at the 2016 SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles. I’ve written a book (Technocreep: The Surrender of Privacy and the Capitalization of Intimacy, Greystone Books, 2014) and note that the developers of Pokémon Go met most, but not all, of the criteria I laid out for avoiding “technocreepiness”. However, even I was surprised by the meteoric rise of that dopey smartphone game, though I successfully predicted its demise into relative obscurity. Implications: This presentation provides an analysis of how and why Pokémon Go captured the hearts, minds, and feet of people around the world, and what we can learn from it. Other AR projects, like Google Glass and the Tesco Discovery app, are acknowledged failures. So, what makes the difference between success and failure in the Augmented Reality world? If I knew, I’d be selling the information to the highest bidder. But I do have some pretty solid ideas about how augmented reality can make people want to walk more, and not just to catch Pikachu or Squritle. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.11.132
S6:05 Pedestrian Wayfinding Nudging Healthier Journeys through Information Design (breakout presentation) Adrian Bell Activate Planning, Canada
Background: Wayfinding is a common action in active transportation strategies and trail plans. Wayfinding used to be synonymous with maps and signs but is now a more nuanced area of communication cutting across the disciplines of graphic, public realm and digital design. Urban wayfinding design took a leap forward with the UK Legible London project in 2008. Here cognitive science was used to produce intricately planned and iconic map pylons that have been copied across the world. The process for producing the mapping was so new, that a digital system, the Living Map was built. Aim: Legible London is cited as a cause of measured increases in walking, but London is a unique city and it was not known if the techniques used would work in North America. The designers took their knowledge to Vancouver, Edmonton and Cleveland under separate commissions to find out. Method: Each city undertook independent evaluations of prototype walking wayfinding projects using the same principles as Legible London. Generally, the evaluations included public intercept or on-line surveys as well as group reviews. Results: Independent evaluation showed that between 57% to 82% of people interviewed stated they were willingness to walk more as a result of the wayfinding. Legible London surveys after wider roll out have suggested a 5% increase in walking in those areas may be attributed to wayfinding. This indicates that intention is leading to action and given the relative costs of wayfinding compared to infrastructure, that there is a potentially high return on investment for this area of work. Conclusions: The presentation will demonstrate how carefully planned and executed urban wayfinding can increase willingness to walk in our gridiron cities as well as tangled European streets. It will outline key
Abstracts / Journal of Transport & Health 7 (2017) S4–S87
S83
features of good wayfinding and how it works to change behaviour. It will conclude by suggesting how new technology and city objectives could increase the role of wayfinding in smart active cities. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.11.133
Toronto TO360 Pilot Evaluation and the Case for Pedestrian Wayfinding (breakout presentation) Juan Pablo Rioseco, Phil Berczuk Steer Davies Gleave, United Kingdom
Background: Following other ‘legible city’ projects, the City of Toronto initiated the TO360 Wayfinding Strategy in support of walking as the connecting mode that enables sustainable transportation. A pilot scheme delivered in 2015 provided a baseline for evaluation in support of a business case for citywide roll-out. Description: TO360 is comprehensive multimodal strategy for pedestrian, vehicular, cyclist and transit users. The pedestrian pilot consists of on-street signage and maps at transit shelters and street furniture. Signs are deployed to support the most legible routes connecting arrival points and destinations, but also reveal the offer of the area, promoting wandering and exploration. Maps incorporate features to support walking such as 5-min walking circle, heads-up orientation and landmark buildings. Outcomes: The objective of the pilot is two-fold: test user understanding and physical qualities of products, and provide an evaluation baseline. Pre- and post-implementation surveys were undertaken 12 months apart to measure change. After the pilot, rating for users to help finding their way around increased from 61% to 89%; to help making informed choices about walking routes increased from 39% to 83%; and, to learn about new and interesting locations or attractions increased from 44% to 82%. Results are comparable to other cities, notably to Legible London which also run an evaluation three years after implementation that demonstrated that as the wayfinding system expands it delivers increased awareness and confidence to explore. Implications: Based on the system life-cycle costs and benefits, the indicative benefit cost ratio for Toronto is estimated at 3.7:1. This means that for every dollar invested, nearly $4 is returned through transportation benefits such as pedestrian and auto journey time savings. The case for TO360 is further enhanced by other non-monetized benefits such as additional tax revenues from retail, tourism, reduction in emissions and health care costs. However, benefits in terms of footfall and visitor expenditure are harder to justify beyond downtown areas. A recommended implementation would be to combine high quality signage in dense areas with potential for walking with more cost-effective solutions such printed and digital maps across the city, creating a consistent pedestrian information fabric. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.11.134
Edmonton's Wayfinding Journey (breakout presentation) Ian Hosler City of Edmonton, Canada
Overview: The session will comprise a presentation by the City of Edmonton on why they decided to pursue the development of a coordinated City approach to wayfinding systems. We will cover the development of objectives, the value case that needed to be made, pilot project evaluation and their perspectives on how wayfinding helps people perceive and use their city on foot. Background: In 2012, the City of Edmonton embarked on a walking wayfinding project as one of the goals of our walkability strategy. Objectives included wanting to encourage people to walk in a northern city, to find
Abstracts / Journal of Transport & Health 7 (2017) S4–S87
Even the time-honored tradition of “walking the halls” to browse a library is now impossible at the University of Calgary, with most books hermetically sealed in a far-away High Density Library. The prognosis for walking doesn’t look so good, especially in the light of WHO statistics showing that globally, 81% of adolescents aged 11-17 years were insufficiently physically active in 2010. It doesn’t have to be that way. The inane Pokémon Go craze, which came and went in 2016 (Slice Intelligence reports that the game’s paying player base dropped 79% from July to August of that year) teaches us a valuable lesson. Technology can get people off their couches, but only if it appeals to their highest values. Program Description: I’ve advised developers on Augmented Reality (AR) projects from making architectural and historic features visible on smartphones to adding haptic feedback to medical devices, and have also covered this field as a technology writer, attending and speaking at the 2016 SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles. I’ve written a book (Technocreep: The Surrender of Privacy and the Capitalization of Intimacy, Greystone Books, 2014) and note that the developers of Pokémon Go met most, but not all, of the criteria I laid out for avoiding “technocreepiness”. However, even I was surprised by the meteoric rise of that dopey smartphone game, though I successfully predicted its demise into relative obscurity. Implications: This presentation provides an analysis of how and why Pokémon Go captured the hearts, minds, and feet of people around the world, and what we can learn from it. Other AR projects, like Google Glass and the Tesco Discovery app, are acknowledged failures. So, what makes the difference between success and failure in the Augmented Reality world? If I knew, I’d be selling the information to the highest bidder. But I do have some pretty solid ideas about how augmented reality can make people want to walk more, and not just to catch Pikachu or Squritle. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.11.132
S6:05 Pedestrian Wayfinding Nudging Healthier Journeys through Information Design (breakout presentation) Adrian Bell Activate Planning, Canada
Background: Wayfinding is a common action in active transportation strategies and trail plans. Wayfinding used to be synonymous with maps and signs but is now a more nuanced area of communication cutting across the disciplines of graphic, public realm and digital design. Urban wayfinding design took a leap forward with the UK Legible London project in 2008. Here cognitive science was used to produce intricately planned and iconic map pylons that have been copied across the world. The process for producing the mapping was so new, that a digital system, the Living Map was built. Aim: Legible London is cited as a cause of measured increases in walking, but London is a unique city and it was not known if the techniques used would work in North America. The designers took their knowledge to Vancouver, Edmonton and Cleveland under separate commissions to find out. Method: Each city undertook independent evaluations of prototype walking wayfinding projects using the same principles as Legible London. Generally, the evaluations included public intercept or on-line surveys as well as group reviews. Results: Independent evaluation showed that between 57% to 82% of people interviewed stated they were willingness to walk more as a result of the wayfinding. Legible London surveys after wider roll out have suggested a 5% increase in walking in those areas may be attributed to wayfinding. This indicates that intention is leading to action and given the relative costs of wayfinding compared to infrastructure, that there is a potentially high return on investment for this area of work. Conclusions: The presentation will demonstrate how carefully planned and executed urban wayfinding can increase willingness to walk in our gridiron cities as well as tangled European streets. It will outline key
Abstracts / Journal of Transport & Health 7 (2017) S4–S87
S83
features of good wayfinding and how it works to change behaviour. It will conclude by suggesting how new technology and city objectives could increase the role of wayfinding in smart active cities. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.11.133
Toronto TO360 Pilot Evaluation and the Case for Pedestrian Wayfinding (breakout presentation) Juan Pablo Rioseco, Phil Berczuk Steer Davies Gleave, United Kingdom
Background: Following other ‘legible city’ projects, the City of Toronto initiated the TO360 Wayfinding Strategy in support of walking as the connecting mode that enables sustainable transportation. A pilot scheme delivered in 2015 provided a baseline for evaluation in support of a business case for citywide roll-out. Description: TO360 is comprehensive multimodal strategy for pedestrian, vehicular, cyclist and transit users. The pedestrian pilot consists of on-street signage and maps at transit shelters and street furniture. Signs are deployed to support the most legible routes connecting arrival points and destinations, but also reveal the offer of the area, promoting wandering and exploration. Maps incorporate features to support walking such as 5-min walking circle, heads-up orientation and landmark buildings. Outcomes: The objective of the pilot is two-fold: test user understanding and physical qualities of products, and provide an evaluation baseline. Pre- and post-implementation surveys were undertaken 12 months apart to measure change. After the pilot, rating for users to help finding their way around increased from 61% to 89%; to help making informed choices about walking routes increased from 39% to 83%; and, to learn about new and interesting locations or attractions increased from 44% to 82%. Results are comparable to other cities, notably to Legible London which also run an evaluation three years after implementation that demonstrated that as the wayfinding system expands it delivers increased awareness and confidence to explore. Implications: Based on the system life-cycle costs and benefits, the indicative benefit cost ratio for Toronto is estimated at 3.7:1. This means that for every dollar invested, nearly $4 is returned through transportation benefits such as pedestrian and auto journey time savings. The case for TO360 is further enhanced by other non-monetized benefits such as additional tax revenues from retail, tourism, reduction in emissions and health care costs. However, benefits in terms of footfall and visitor expenditure are harder to justify beyond downtown areas. A recommended implementation would be to combine high quality signage in dense areas with potential for walking with more cost-effective solutions such printed and digital maps across the city, creating a consistent pedestrian information fabric. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.11.134
Edmonton's Wayfinding Journey (breakout presentation) Ian Hosler City of Edmonton, Canada
Overview: The session will comprise a presentation by the City of Edmonton on why they decided to pursue the development of a coordinated City approach to wayfinding systems. We will cover the development of objectives, the value case that needed to be made, pilot project evaluation and their perspectives on how wayfinding helps people perceive and use their city on foot. Background: In 2012, the City of Edmonton embarked on a walking wayfinding project as one of the goals of our walkability strategy. Objectives included wanting to encourage people to walk in a northern city, to find