Quantifying bicycling stress level using virtual reality and electrodermal activity sensor

Abstract

The application of wearable wireless electrodermal activity (EDA) devices in virtual reality (VR) experiments has become increasingly popular and lends itself for the application in behavioral research for transport planning. The type of infrastructure and interaction with other road users can invoke different arousal levels in urban bicyclists, which can be modeled with VR applications and captured by EDA sensors. At the intersection of engineering, psychology, and physiology, this research attempted to quantify bicycling stress levels using a bicycle simulator combined with immersive 360-degree virtual reality and an EDA sensor. Overall, 150 participants rode through 5 different bicycling environments in VR while their elicited skin conductance responses (SCRs) were passively collected by an EDA sensor that was connected to the participants for the duration of the experiment. Analysis of the signal for the entire stretch of the bicycling course did not yield significant differences in SCRs between different bicycling environments. However, comparing smaller segments of the bicycling course revealed significant differences. Bicycling on the side- walk shared with pedestrians caused higher stress levels while bicycling on the segregated bicycle path found to be the least stressful. Evidence was found of a link between self-reported perceptions of safety and SCR rates. The results of this research shows a promising path in using VR experiments to identify stressful events and locations and to quantify bicycling stress level for non-existent future facility designs.