Impacts of the environment on human health
Talk, The Seventh Young Scholars International Forum on Design Innovation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
Talks and presentations
Examining the Environmental Impact on Drivers’ Mental and Physiological Status on Urban Roads
Talk, HKU research seminar series, HKU, Hong Kong
Around 1.35 million people die due to traffic accidents every year (World Health Organization 2021). At the same time, road traffic crashes have also led to an estimated 3% loss in GDP in many countries (World Health Organization, 2021). The rising importance of road safety inspired researchers on examining impacts of environmental factors on safe driving. Several simulated driving studies have shown that road landscapes impact drivers’ mental health and safety (Fitzpatrick et al., 2016; Jiang et al., 2020, 2021; Thiffault & Bergeron, 2003; Van Treese et al., 2018). However, very few studies have investigated these impacts in real-world urban roads (Wang et al., 2016). In the study, we selected seven one-hour driving routes in Liuzhou City and thirty-four participants completed seven real driving tasks in a randomly assigned sequence over a period of seven days. We measured their mental status before, during and after driving. Using multi-factor ANOVA, we found that greenness level had a significant impact on mental health. Road landscapes with higher greenness were associated with higher levels of mental status. Other perceived environmental characteristics that significantly affected drivers’ mental status included traffic conditions, variety of color (less color variety is better), and aesthetic quality. These findings suggest that greenness, traffic conditions, color, and aesthetic quality of road environments should be prioritized by transportation officials, road planners and landscape designers to promote drivers’ mental health and safety.