Mobility award for "Urban Emotions" project

VCÖ Mobilitätspreis Salzburg 2017 © Land Salzburg/Mayer

Congratulations to Bernd Resch and the "Urban Emotions" project team! The project was awarded second at this year´s "VCÖ Mobilitätspreis Salzburg". The prize is awarded annually by the Austrian traffic organisation Verkehrsclub Österreich (VCÖ). 

The "Urban Emotions" project aims to establish a more citizen-centric view of urban planning through integrating emotional responses to their environment. Do they feel comfortable or are they scared in underpasses or at traffic hotspots?  

In the interdisciplinary project, Bernd Resch and his team capture information about user´s sensations from human-generated data: 
a) from human sensors: test persons wear sensors (wrist bands or chest belts) which measure physiological parameters, from which emotions and stress levels can be derived 
b) from social media: analysis of publicly accessible data from social networks like Twitter, Facebook , Flickr and Instagram using semi-supervised machine learning algorithms.

The project aims to promote climate-friendly mobility and citizen-centered urban planning. Field studies in Kaiserslautern and in Boston are already concluded. In the aftermath of the project, the city administration of Kaiserslautern already improved the infrastructure and security for its bikers and initiated awareness-building programmes for climate-friendly mobility. The next field study will be conducted in the city of Salzburg.

More information

Contact: Bernd Resch