Walking Experience Evaluation Using Multiple Survey Methods: A Case Study of Shanghai

Evaluating walking experience is the basis of active transportation development and street re-design. However, how to better carry out such an evaluation is still an unresolved problem. This paper proposes a methodology framework to evaluate the effect of virtual reality on its potential application scenarios and compare it with traditional picture and field surveys. The data captured by the three survey methods were used to evaluate the street walking experience according to three concerns: street space allocation, street vitality, and street planting. Then, a multiple layered linear regression model was established to calculate the index weights for the different approaches. For the case study, this paper took eight typical branch roads in Shanghai as study subjects and evaluated the walking experience through field survey, picture survey, and VR survey. The results show that for each walking experience concern, respectively, the virtual reality survey has its unique advantages in certain scenarios.