GREENTRAVEL has generated five major advances to date that go beyond the state-of-the-art.
First, we have published in top journals unforeseen, high-resolution assessments on the availability of greenery during travel across large European cities (see Klein et al. 2024 and Willberg et al. 2024).
Second, we have conducted an extensive, representative survey in all five focus cities (Helsinki, Copenhagen, Munich, London, Las Palmas) that improves our understanding on the importance of greenery during everyday trip behaviour (making the trip, mode choice, route choice). The survey went beyond the original plan to incorporate participatory mapping, which allowed us to collect spatially explicit information on perceived pleasant and unpleasant environments for urban residents. The results are published as open data.
Third, we have built controllable and immersive VR environments, which go beyond the state-of-the-art in multiple respects. They integrate motion with participants being able to cycle inside the environment, seasonal variation with environments adjusted to varying greenery levels and stress monitoring with participants’ physiological responses being measured on a second-by-second basis.
Fourth, we have developed a state-of-the-art route planning software, Green Paths 2.0 which is unique in its capabilities allowing flexibility to multiple environmental exposure types, scalability for mass calculation and transferability across study areas.
Fifth, we have advanced the mapping of greenery and pleasantness of everyday travel environments using street view imagery. We have conducted a broad review of ways to map greenery using street view imagery (Hasanzadeh, submitted). We have also moved beyond the original plan and started exploring the possibilities of Large Language Models in interpreting the pleasantness of the travel environments. The first paper is out and is a first of its kind (Malekzadeh et al. 2025). The work opens completely new avenues for collecting data on travel environment qualities.
