title: Perception of Safety and Liking Associated to the Colour Intervention of Bike Lanes: Contribution from the Behavioural Sciences to Urban Design and Wellbeing.
abstract: The perception of colour and its subjective effects are key issues to designing safe and enjoyable bike lanes. This paper addresses the relationship between the colours of bike lane interventions-in particular pavement painting and intersection design-and the subjective evaluation of liking, visual saliency, and perceived safety related to such an intervention. Utilising images of three real bike lane intersections modified by software to change their colour (five in total), this study recruited 538 participants to assess their perception of all fifteen colour-design combinations. A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with the Bonferroni post hoc test was performed to assess the effect of the main conditions (colour and design) on the dependent variables (liking towards the intervention, level of visual saliency of the intersection, and perceived safety of the bike lane). The results showed that the colour red was more positively associated to the outcome variables, followed by yellow and blue. Additionally, it was observed that the effect of colour widely outweighs the effect of design, suggesting that the right choice and use of colour would increase the effectiveness on bike-lanes pavement interventions. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Universidad de Santiago de Chile USACH, Santiago de Chile, Chile.|Innovation Centre in Information Technology for Social Applications (CITIAPS), Universidad de Santiago de Chile USACH, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vera-Villarroel
authors.affiliation: Innovation Centre in Information Technology for Social Applications (CITIAPS), Universidad de Santiago de Chile USACH, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Contreras
authors.affiliation: Innovation Centre in Information Technology for Social Applications (CITIAPS), Universidad de Santiago de Chile USACH, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
authors.forename: Sebastián
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lillo
authors.affiliation: Innovation Centre in Information Technology for Social Applications (CITIAPS), Universidad de Santiago de Chile USACH, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2526-3141
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beyle
authors.affiliation: Innovation Centre in Information Technology for Social Applications (CITIAPS), Universidad de Santiago de Chile USACH, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Segovia
authors.affiliation: Innovation Centre in Information Technology for Social Applications (CITIAPS), Universidad de Santiago de Chile USACH, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rojo
authors.affiliation: Innovation Centre in Information Technology for Social Applications (CITIAPS), Universidad de Santiago de Chile USACH, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.affiliation: Innovation Centre in Information Technology for Social Applications (CITIAPS), Universidad de Santiago de Chile USACH, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Oyarzo
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D001525:Behavioral Sciences; D001642:Bicycling; D002677:Chile; D002947:Cities; D003116:Color; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004779:Environment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012449:Safety; D014186:Transportation