| Affiliations: | |
| Project Leader: | Tara Goddard, Ph.D. goddard@tamu.edu Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning |
| Faculty Mentor: | |
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Meeting Times:
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Tuesdays 10:00-10:45 am |
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Team Size:
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0
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| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Co-authorship; VR experiments
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Team Needs:
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Highly desirable – experience with Unreal engine or Unity |
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Description:
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Two of the dominant trends in transportation planning are currently in conflict, and prevent realization of national, statewide, and local goals to improve both sustainability and safety. First, governmental agencies from the United Nations to the local planning agency have adopted plans that encourage increased bicycling, walking, and transit use to achieve sustainability goals. Second, traffic deaths and serious injuries continue to be a leading cause of preventable death with devastating social and economic effects, and perceptions of the danger of transit use and active travel modes reduces uptake of those modes. Until both the reality and perception of the dangers of non-automobile modes are significantly decreased, the goals of sustainability and livability cannot be achieved. Real-world testing of transportation conflicts and interventions is difficult because of the dangers involved. Virtual reality (VR), however, provides a rich environment in which it is feasible, economical, and safe to create a variety of transportation scenarios, isolate the mechanisms between user interactions, test interventions, and better understand how to improve safety. This project will use VR to test contact theory-based interventions to see whether empathy-building can increase road safety behaviors and perceptions of “out-group” experiences both immediately and after three months and six months after participating in an intervention.Due to the extensive interest in this project, and to ensure the best possible fit between participants and the needs of the project, we ask that all students complete this application survey. Please complete the survey by September 15, 2021. Participant selection is anticipated to be completed by September 20 and project meetings will start by September 21. The application can be accessed at this link: https://tamu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0ifRIefBEmyinH0 |