Results of Tunnelvisionair experiment leaves us wanting more
Visual and auditory stimuli change the way people experience a bicycle tunnel the most. This is the outcome of the Tunnelvisionair experiment by mobility agency Goudappel. Such adjustments must fit in with the environment, otherwise it will not work.
How can the experience of a bicycle tunnel been improved with sensory adjustments so that it feels safer? This was the central question in the Tunnelvisionair experiment, the winning idea by Goudappel for the 2023 competition of the Bicycle Innovation Lab of Amsterdam Bike City. After a survey in which Amsterdammers could indicate tunnels that feel unsafe, four tunnels in Amsterdam Noord got a special touch for one day (February 28th 2024).
One tunnel was provided with colourful ‘disco lighting’, bird sounds were played in another tunnel, orange aroma touched the sense of smell in the third tunnel and in the fourth tunnel there was a light breeze in the back. Cyclists through the tunnels were asked about their experience of the tunnel, with and without the special touch.
Environmental stimuli
The experiment showed that the sense of ‘seeing’ contributed the most to the judgement of the tunnel, at 44%. This was followed by ‘hearing’ at 35%, ‘smell’ at 16% and ‘feeling’ at 5%. ‘The special thing about this experiment is that we looked at how much influence the individual senses have’, says Iris van Hagen, who devised and carried out this experiment together with her colleague Thijs Broers. Van Hagen works at the research department of mobility agency Goudappel, where the experience of an environment is often studied. ‘We know that environmental stimuli largely determine how you experience an environment, whether you feel comfortable there. Emotions are influenced by what you see, hear, smell and feel. Never before has the influence of the senses been examined separately.’
Seeing
The sense of seeing had the greatest influence. Van Hagen: ‘We did expect that. People are visually oriented, scan the environment from afar and then make an assessment: am I safe? People are doing that since prehistoric times. So that was not surprising. At first, the disco lighting seemed to have less effect than we had hoped, but in the end the effect turned out to be significant. But the disco lighting did not completely change the experience of the tunnel. On a scale of ten, it went from a three to a five,.’
Sound
Sound came in second place. The bird sounds were popular. Van Hagen: That was not unexpected.’ The orange scent, with which the sense of smell was investigated, turned out to have less influence. The fact that the orange scent was found to be ‘not appropriate’ may have played a role in this. Van Hagen: ‘Then the whole experience doesn’t work. The bird sounds worked very well, because they fit in an outdoor location, but the orange scent did not match the environment, and then it is no longer reassuring. In itself, this result was also in line with the theory, there must be a connection with the environment.’
Fitting
A tailwind is completely fitting in a bicycle tunnel, so you would think that it would work well. But that was not the case. The fans that provided the tailwind turned out to be so noisy that it was disruptive. Van Hagen: ‘That noise was experienced as negative. The disruptive noise even affected the cognitive ability of cyclists. They could no longer respond properly to the questionnaire.’
Starting points
The results of the experiment offer all kinds of starting points to do more to influence the experience of places like bicycle tunnels. Van Hagen ‘If a station is a pleasant space, people experience waiting times as shorter. I think that influencing the experience of bicycle tunnels offers opportunities as well. Tunnels are spaces where people just stay for a little while, but they can have great influence on how people feel. Some people avoid certain tunnels.’
The lessons from this small experiment could be applied on a larger scale. ‘That would certainly be interesting. Obviously, you need to start with good lighting and good lines of vision. But applying more colour helps, as we can conclude from this experiment. Many tunnels are very grey.’ Filtering out negative stimuli can also help. Van Hagen: ‘You could think of filtering out disturbing noise from car traffic. Or, for example, ensure that a tunnel no longer stinks of urine. That also helps.’
Feeling unsafe is a reason to cycle less or not at all, and to avoid certain places. This research will give the municipality of Amsterdam a better understanding of what causes these feelings and what measures can help make cyclists feel safer. Amsterdam will use the results of this experiment to learn from. And in one of the tunnels of the trial, the one under Nieuwe Pumerweg, an artwork with light will be placed to make it feel safer.
Bicycle Innovation Lab
In 2023, Amsterdam Bike City organized the Bicycle Innovation Lab about the theme of social insecurity. This trial follows from the winning idea ‘Tunnelvisionair’ by mobility agency Goudappel. They focused on tunnels because previous research showed that people often experience tunnels as unsafe. The results of the trial were presented to the municipality of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Transport Region.
