Would You Displace? It Depends! A Multivariate Visual Approach to Intended Displacement from an Urban Forest Trail

Abstract

A dichotomous choice survey was applied to explore the contributions of various social conditions to intended displacement from the main trail of a recreation area in Vienna, Austria. The trail scenarios were depicted as digitally calibrated images which systematically displayed combinations of levels of crowding with different mixes of user types, group sizes, compliance behavior, direction of movement, and placement within the image. Intended displacement was measured by interviewing 237 visitors on-site. The resulting model documents that the intention to displace is influenced by all six systematically controlled social factors as well as the interactions between crowding and several other design variables. High visitor numbers, unleashed dogs, small group sizes, more face to face encounters, a mix of user types moving at different speeds and several combinations between them increased intentions to displace.

KEYWORDS:

• Controlled experiment
• crowding
• urban forest
• social carrying capacity
• stated preference model
• use displacement
• visitor behavior