FEMINIST STREETSCAPES A Study on Perceptions of Streetscapes in Eugene, Oregon Lexi Smaldone Master’s Project Chair: Roxi Thoren 0 Master of Landscape Architecture UNIVERS I TY OF OREGON June 2021 School of Architecture & Environment APPROVAL Project Chair : Roxi Thoren Committee Member: Kory Russel Committee Member: Chris Enright Submitted in partial fulfillment for the Master of Landscape Architecture Department of Landscape Architecture College of Design University of Oregon 2021 ii ABSTRACT In the United States, women often perceive traveling to be an inconvenient and uncomfortable experience. This experience is the result of the disproportionate role men have historically played in transportation system design. By not considering the travel needs and preferences of women, systems were designed that neglected the everyday transportation habits of half the population. This issue has broad implications because our streets make up most of our urban public space, yet their convenience to all users is often not considered when being designed (Toomey 2012). The primary objective of this research was to determine whether and how perceptions of streetscapes vary by gender, age, or familiarity with place. This project also aimed to identify typologies of positive and negative street design elements that contribute to pedestrian level of comfort. A literature review, visual preference survey, and precedent studies were used to complete this research. The findings from these methods guided typology generation, and the findings from the typology generation informed three design solutions. An online visual preference survey with 408 participants found that there is no substantial difference in perception by gender or familiarity of place, yet perception varies slightly by age cohort. Women can be considered a keystone species. If women perceive the streetscape just as positively as men do, then that streetscape is well-designed for all and is accessible for vulnerable populations. In addition, regardless of gender, age, or familiarity, most respondents positively perceived streets with well-defined, protected walkways. Future research will be needed to further examine if other variables such as race, noise, or time of day affect perceptions of streetscapes. iii iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Roxi, thank you for listening to my wild idea last year and helping me turn it into a meaningful research project. Thank you for sharing my survey and helping me smash my response goal tenfold. Thank you for meeting with me each week and reassuring me each time that I was doing fine, and that everything was going to be fine. RJ, thank you for testing my survey as many times as you did. Thank you for reading my report before every submission. Thank you for listening to me and giving me feedback with no notice. Thank you for supporting me through this project and through my whole time working towards my degree. So many thanks to my cohort. It’s been an extremely difficult year, and probably the worst time to be completing a master’s degree, but here we are. Our cohort was built tough from the start, and I’m so proud of and thankful for everyone. Many of you have helped me get up when I fell to the ground, and some of you caught me and didn’t let me fall again. I can’t express my gratitude enough. I’d like to thank the LiveMove student group for allowing me to share my survey in their newsletter. Working with you all this past year has been such a pleasure. Thank you especially to the leadership team for your constant and unwavering support. I’d also like to thank Kory Russel and Chris Enright for their guidance through this process. Kory, I was so nervous about launching my survey before you looked at it. Thank you for taking the time to go through it with me. It was such a huge piece of this project; I have no idea how it would have turned out without your help. Chris, thank you so much for your guidance this past term. You helped take this exhausting, terrifying, unforgiving project and find the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you for herding us Ducks from our first day to our last in the program. Finally, to my family. From dealing with me calling late at night because of the time difference, to only seeing me once or twice a year (or not at all this last year and a half), you guys have been my rocks. Thank you for listing to me do nothing but complain about how tired I’ve been for three years straight, and for supporting me anyway. For the record, I cried the entire time writing this page. You all have made massive impacts on me these last three years. The pleasure has truly been mine. v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Scope 2 1.2 Significance 2 1.3 Research Questions 2 Chapter 2 Literature Review 3 2.1 Gender and Travel Patterns 4 2.2 Decrease Car Dependency 5 2.3 Mitigate Effects of Climate Change 5 2.4 Economic Boost 6 2.5 People in Public Spaces 6 2.6 The Gap in Knowledge 7 Chapter 3 Methods 9 3.1 Visual Preference Survey 10 3.2 Data Analysis 14 3.3 Precedent Study 17 3.4 Typology Generation 17 3.5 Design 17 Chapter 4 Findings 19 4.1 Visual Preference Survey 20 4.2 Data Analysis 21 4.3 Precedent Study 28 4.4 Typology Generation 33 Chapter 5 Design Solutions 41 5.1 Design Solution 1 42 5.2 Design Solution 2 44 5.3 Design Solution 3 46 Chapter 6 Conclusion 49 6.1 Limitations 50 6.2 Further Inquiry 50 6.3 Transferability 51 Appendices 53 Appendix A Raw Survey Results 54 Appendix B References 60 vii Introduction CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1.1 Scope 1.2 Significance 1.3 Research Questions 1 1.1 Scope This project analyzes visual perception of street safety in Eugene, Oregon with a focus on understanding the unique perceptions of women in order to provide recommendation to improve comfort and increase pedestrian use of streets. This project has two components. The first component is an online visual preference survey to identify differences in perception, as well as positive and negative aspects of Eugene’s streetscapes. The second uses the survey along with precedents to develop a design toolkit. The primary objectives of this project are to determine if perception of comfort varies by gender, and to identify a typology of uncomfortable street design elements in the landscape, and propose their respective design improvements. This project will also emphasize the need to acknowledge female travel perceptions when designing and planning city’s streets. 1.2 Significance People typically spend eight to ten times more time on streets than they do in parks, yet landscape architecture focuses heavily on park design and steers away from street design (Toomey 2012). Consequently, streets are poorly designed in general, with particular impacts on vulnerable populations, including women, who represent half of the population (Friedman n.d.). If designers and policy makers helped create safer, more walkable streets it would increase active transportation, decrease car dependency, and work towards mitigating the effects of climate change. This challenge is particularly significant in urban areas, where more than half of the world’s population lives, because they account for more than 70 percent of global carbon emissions (Glazebrook and Newman 2018). The transportation sector was the largest source of carbon emissions in the United States in both 2017 and 2018 (Irfan 2018). Furthermore, studies show that designing streets for people rather than cars also increases economic productivity, produces a higher tax value per acre, and offers a better return on infrastructure investment (Quednau 2018a). This project is aimed at designers and policy makers who can use its findings to design more inclusive streetscapes. 1.3 Research Questions This project addresses four research questions: • Do street design preferences vary by gender? • Do street design preferences vary by age group? • What street design elements are perceived as negative? • What street design elements improve perceptions?Introduction CHAPTER 2: Literature Review 2.1 Gender and Travel Patterns 2.2 Decrease Car Dependency 2.3 Mitigate Effects of Climate Change 2.4 Economic Boost 2.5 People in Public Spaces 2.6 The Gap in Knowledge 3 In the United States, women often perceive traveling to be an inconvenient and inaccessible experience. This experience is the result of the disproportionate role men have historically played in transportation system design. By not considering the travel needs of women, systems were designed that neglected the everyday transportation habits of half the population. There are several noticeable examples of this, like car headrests that do not accommodate ponytails, but a less obvious example is the streetscape, which is the appearance or view of a street. This issue has broad implications because our streets make up most of our urban public space, yet their appearance to all users is often not considered when being designed (Toomey 2012). Moreover, gender-inclusive street design also supports other community goals, such as promoting sustainability and economic vitality. With half the population identifying as female, understanding how all genders perceive its transportation system can help the community achieve a better design for all. There are several key benefits associated with walkable streets. First, they are considered more attractive, safe, and help businesses thrive (Quednau 2018b). Human-scale streets are safer for everyone because they require everyone to slow down and pay more attention to their surroundings (Quednau 2018b). Walkable streets also provide benefits geared specifically towards women. Women are more physically active and healthy in walkable places; if cities are built to allow women to walk safely, they will use active travel and overall health will improve (Matchett n.d.). Understanding the current safety concerns of streets is crucial to understanding how streets can be improved through design. Although women walk and use transit more than men, increasing female comfort on streets would increase their likelihood to walk. That increase would come with benefits at a variety of scales, from individual health benefits to urban economy to climate change mitigation. 2.1 Gender and Travel Patterns Literature on female travel patterns has become increasingly more available. Studies show that a typical trip made by a man looks very different from a typical trip made by a woman. Women make more daily trips but travel fewer miles, are more likely to make trips to serve others, such as children, and are more likely to chain trips together than just one destination and then back home (Conference on Research on Women’s Issues in Transportation 2006). This makes women’s travel patterns much more complex than men’s typical twice-daily commute in and out of town (Criado- Perez 2019). In fact, adult women are more likely than men to have multiple destinations in one trip or take several trips per day, shown in Figure 2.1 on page 5. (McGuckin and Murakami 1999). As a result, many of the trips that women commonly make are ideally suited for walking (Matchett n.d.). While many countries lack consistent, sex-disaggregated data, studies of existing data found that women are more likely to walk and take public transport than men (Criado-Perez 2019). This is likely a result of more men having a driver’s license and owning a car than women (Beirão and Cabral 2008). Women are more likely to use public transportation for non-work trips, where men are more likely to use a car for both work and non-work trips (Beirão and Cabral 2008). Travel patterns also differ by household gender role. Men tend to travel alone, while women are more likely to travel with children or elderly relatives they are caring for (Criado-Perez 2019). When with children, women are more likely to drive because they have control over how safe the children are and feel (Matchett n.d.). Women also tend to make more complex chained trips when with children than women travelling without children (McGuckin and Murakami 1999). Literature Review '' ' ' ' Figure 2.1: Male (left) and Female (right) Travel Patterns 2.2 Decrease Car Dependency The first step toward making streets safer for pedestrians is switching the priority of the street away from cars. Car dependency can be reduced by design interventions at the neighborhood or street level. Studies show that a neighborhood concentrated with a larger population, more activities, streets, and pedestrian infrastructure result in reduced personal vehicle use (Jiang et al. 2017). In fact, enhanced street design can lead to a reduction of 12.3 percent vehicle miles travelled (VMT) (Jiang et al. 2017). Designing streets with all modes of transportation in mind increases accessibility and safety for active transportation like walking and cycling (Keippel et al. 2017). Walkable streets with continuous street facades and small setbacks were found to reduce VMT (Jiang et al. 2017). In contrast, poor street design, disparate land use, time constraints, and lack of personal safety all will force women off their feet and into cars (Matchett n.d.). Improving street design to enhance comfort would encourage people to use active transportation more and reduce car dependency. 2.3 Mitigate Effects of Climate Change The streetscape is a natural place to look when trying to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With more than 50 percent of the world’s population living in cities, urban areas account for over 70 percent of global CO2 emissions (Glazebrook and Newman 2018). The transportation sector was the biggest source of CO2 emissions in the U.S. for the second year in a row in 2018 (Irfan 2018). Transportation accounted for 28 percent of U.S. total GHG emissions in 2006 (Younger et al. 2008). Pedestrians and bicyclists have a much smaller effect on the environment (Gehl 2010). If walking rates increased by about eight percent globally, for instance, urban carbon emissions would drop by about 11 percent (Anzilotti 2018). Designing streets with a greater emphasis on pedestrians and cyclists can help facilitate the transition away from cars (Gehl 2010). Making streets more comfortable for women would also encourage more active transportation, get more people out of their cars, and contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change by reducing their individual carbon footprint. 5 2.4 Economic Boost Streets designed for people over cars were found to not only be safer, but also more economically productive than any other style of development, leading businesses to thrive (Quednau 2018a). Walkable streets are less likely to have vacant storefronts, activating the street façade (Peters 2016). These types of streets encourage business activity, generate greater tax revenue per acre, and offer a higher return on investment than auto-oriented streets (Quednau 2018a). In Dublin, a redesigned pedestrian-friendly neighborhood led to a 300 percent increase in employment (Peters 2016). Transit users and walkers spend less at a business per trip, but make more trips in a given month, adding up to a higher spending total than those driving (Quednau 2018a). Overall, biking and walking provide about a $12 return on investment for every $1 spent on infrastructure (Peters 2016). Encouraging people to use active transportation in their neighborhoods directly improves social comfort and the local economy. 2.5 People in Public Spaces Pioneers like Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte, and Jan Gehl have encouraged designers and planners to observe how people use space in cities (Gehl and Svarre 2013). With different activities occurring in the same place, public spaces are constantly changing (Gehl and Svarre 2013). Only a small amount of space in a streetscape is leftover for pedestrians with most of the space on the roadway designated for the vehicle (Whyte 1984). If public space is improved to invite people, more people will use it (Gehl 2010). Cities should provide good conditions for walking, standing, sitting, listening, and talking, as these encourage people to spend more time in public space, thus increasing the safety potential (Gehl 2010). A city is only as interesting as its streets, and a used street is well suited to be a safe street (Jacobs 1961). If a walkway has walls on either side, it may feel narrower than it is, but if bordered by open space it may borrow that space and feel wider (Whyte 1984). If people fear streets, they will use them less, and in turn make the streets even less safe (Jacobs 1961). An uncrowded sidewalk is a sign of a dead downtown (Whyte 1984). The Complete Streets movement aims to include the needs of all users on one street (Ma 2017). People-oriented streets are welcoming, safe, and accessible for all forms of transportation, but especially walking, with buildings, sidewalks, and other features all at human-scale (Quednau 2018b). Designing streets with all modes of transportation in mind increases accessibility and safety for active transportation like walking and cycling (Ma 2017). For a street to be designed at the human-scale, there should only be one narrow lane for each direction, with street parking or parking behind buildings, lots of windows and signage, and safe sidewalks and crossings (Quednau 2018b). For a city to invite people to walk, it must provide short walking distances, attractive public spaces, and a variety of urban function (Gehl 2010). Building the proper infrastructure will invite more people to use it, and more people around in public spaces leads to those spaces feeling safer and more comfortable. Literature Review 2.6 The Gap in Knowledge A sizeable body of research exists on how to design streets, the impacts street design has, and how people use streets and other public spaces. Yet how people’s perceptions of streets impact their travel preferences has yet to be studied. My research builds upon the seminal work of urbanists like Jan Gehl and William “Holly” Whyte, who studied public spaces by observing what people do within them. Instead, this study examines the impact of streetscape design by showing people a street and asking how they perceive the space’s features. 7 Methods CHAPTER 3: Methods 3.1 Visual Preference Survey 3.2 Data Analysis 3.3 Precedent Study 3.4 Typology Generation 3.5 Design 9 This project began with a literature review to understand the current theories, practices, and critiques of streetscape design through the lens of gender. To better understand current weaknesses and potential improvements of streetscape design for women, a visual preference survey was developed and distributed. Upon closure of the survey, survey analysis and precedent studies occurred simultaneously to then inform the creation of a design typology. The typology generation phase then informed the design phase, the final phase of the project. Survey Literature Visual Analysis Typology Review Preference Design Survey Precedent Generation Study Figure 3.1: Methodology 3.1 Visual Preference Survey An online visual preference survey was used to determine whether different populations had different perceptions of streetscapes, and what aspects of design led to positive or negative perceptions. The survey contained two elements: a Likert scale question of overall comfort of selected images, and a heat map to select elements using the same images. The data obtained from this survey was analyzed based on gender, familiarity with place, and age to determine whether those categories impacted perception of space. Findings from the survey were then used to identify the most and least comfortable images. These images were further visually analyzed to determine the landscape elements, or typologies, that contributed to the perception of the place. The visual preference survey was distributed in three ways. The survey link and information were shared through the listserv of a University of Oregon student group focused on active transportation. The listserv includes students, faculty, alumni, and members of the Eugene/Springfield community. The survey link and information were also shared in two Facebook groups for alumnae of Wesley College, an all-female institution, with one focused on the general alumnae community and the other focused on academia. Additionally, the survey link and information were shared via the researcher’s personal social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. From these three distributions, the survey was freely shared further by participants. The survey asked minimal demographic questions to encourage participation – asking only respondent’s sex, age, and affiliation with the University of Oregon. The survey included 21 images, chosen to represent a variety of street design types. The first image question asked for a comfort scale rating, with 1 being very uncomfortable and 5 being very comfortable, shown in Figure 3.1. If the participant responded with 1 or 2, they proceeded to a heat map question where they were asked to identify anything in the picture that contributes to their discomfort, shown in Figure 3.3. The same heat map question was asked if the respondent answered 4 or 5, but asking about anything in the picture that made them feel more comfortable. They were then offered the opportunity to comment on the elements they clicked on if they would like. If the respondent answered with 3, which represents neutral, they skipped the heat map questions and moved to the next image. Methods Very uncomfortable eu al Very comfortable 1 2 3 4 5 On a sea e of 1 to 5 how comfortable o Id you feel being on this side alk? Figure 3.2: Likert Scale Question Sample 11 Because you answered with some level of discomfort, please click on any features or areas (up to five) in the picture below that would contribute to your discomfort. If you would like to explain the features or areas you selected, you may do so here. Characters remaining: 300 Figure 3.3: Heat Map Question Sample The images selected to be included in the survey are from areas of Eugene where walking is a very common form of transportation, including the downtown and university areas with a few images from more residential neighborhoods as shown in Figure 3.5 on page 14. The purpose was to provide images where survey respondents could imagine themselves walking. The images chosen also portray a variety of street size, layout, planting, and furnishing designs. Some images show vertical separation between the sidewalk and the roadway, while some show a variety of seating options and arrangements. Some sidewalks are adjacent to the roadway, while some are separated by parking, bollards, bike lanes, or plants. Some of these separations are smaller, like a small grass strip of a thin strip of street trees, and others have a larger, more prominent right-of-way separation. The sidewalks shown are at a variety of widths, some only wide enough for two people to be side by side, some much wider, and one where there is no sidewalk. The goal of this variety of images is to gain an understanding at the detail scale. It is assumed that some type of separation between pedestrians and vehicles would be preferred, but the size, shape, and use of that separation may also play a role in comfort. Methods 0 (D 0 0 Figure 3.4: Survey Site Locations in Eugene 13 •• .:- ~ w WE.STWOOD t..N ii EASTWOOD LN •,,s> I ,:,<' Cou,"-lTRY CLUB t?o (,0,. ml R"o'" < "' e o\," ~._-00 . .,.J~n 3': OR-126"W ,,p" ~ ~ Ct'. 0 105 Of{.126E,. 0 0 C1-1rs1-r.RE 4t,l' ''1-/3 llll"'g n~ller! n """' p k p ,k Ct.CJoRO ,. . C_,l?D4VE Anx,n B ker "" p ,, ,.,.,\DR~ o•"f,::, [99) 0 Pmk 81 > o<9 Eug, ne "k " Downtown° LlltLRACt Eugene 0 0 [i,1 0 0 0 0 0 University of o Oregon Campus E 1.sTH A'✓E Je ,son "' 5 8 0 Coll ege Hill;; Urwersty z .,, 0 0 z ~ 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Esri , HERE, Garmin. (c1O p~nSt~ etM~ap contributors5 and the GIS user community : Figure 3.5: Survey Site Locations 3.2 Data Analysis Data analysis occurred in two phases. The first phase focused on the numerical value that respondents gave to each image. Each image was analyzed for differences in perception by gender, within or outside of Eugene, and age, as well as compared across categories. The average ranking was found for each category and was used to find the most and least comfortable images, and to compare different demographic groups to determine whether different perception exists between them. Methods After the top six and bottom six images were identified for each group, the heat map questions of the survey were visually inspected. The data was brought into Tableau to filter it by gender, age, and location. This analysis was done to determine what design elements in each picture contributed to the level of comfort, thus generating typologies. Most Comfortable Least Comfortable Figure 3.6: Data Analysis 15 Figure 3.7: Q6 Heat Map by Female (left) and Male (right) Figure 3.8: Q6 Heat Map by Eugene (left) and Outside Eugene (right) Figure 3.9: Q6 Heat Map by Ages 18-24 (left) and Ages 65+ (right) Methods 3.3 Precedent Study For the precedent study phase of the project, three design projects and two design guides were used to identify typologies for potential solutions to the negative typologies found in Eugene’s streetscapes. The three design projects - Oklahoma City Innovation District, Times Square, and Dutch Kills Green – were used to find street design typologies that enhance safety and comfort for pedestrians. The two design guides – Reframing the Chinese Street as Public Space and National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) Urban Street Design Guide – were used to collect additional typologies that may not have been included in the design projects. 3.4 Typology Generation The six highest and six lowest ranked images were further analyzed to identify positive and negative typologies. These typologies were identified using the heat map questions on the visual preference survey. The areas with more clicks are shown in red for the lower ranked images, and blue for the higher ranked images. The areas with more clicks were then assigned a typology. For example, the image ranked 18th has a dark red spot over the driveway for the parking garage. This was understood to mean that the survey participants did not like that cars could be interacting with them in this space. 3.5 Design The findings from the precedent study and typology generation were applied to three of the lowest ranked images. Each image was assessed using the negative typologies found for them and redesigned using positive typologies that addressed as many negative typologies as possible. 17 Findings CHAPTER 4: Findings 4.1 Visual Preference Survey 4.2 Data Analysis 4.3 Precedent Study 4.4 Typology Generation 19 4.1 Visual Preference Survey The survey received a total of 549 responses. Of those responses, only the 408 complete responses were analyzed. 275 (67%) of the respondents were women, 116 (29%) were men, 11 (3%) were non-binary, and 6 (1%) answered other. Almost half of the respondents (46%) were ages 25-34. 21 percent of respondents were ages 35-44, 13 percent ages 45-54, 10 percent ages 18-24, 8 percent ages 55-64, and just two percent over the age of 65. The majority of survey respondents (87%) had no affiliation with the University of Oregon. The survey was distributed to people outside of Eugene to remove the bias of those who are familiar with the locations shown in the survey. People from Eugene were likely to judge the image based on their experiences in or near that space, including knowing the speed limit, experiencing loud noises or potent smells, or knowing the overall context of the space. • Fem.le Male Non-bmary Other Prefer not to answer Figure 4.1: Survey Demographics: Gender 8% 13% • 18-24 • 2S-34 • 3S-44 • 4S-54 • SS-64 • 6S+ 21% 46% Figure 4.2: Survey Demographics: Age Findings • Outside Eugen