Using brain response to measure pedestrian safety perception: evidence from video and VR experiments

• Pedestrians perceive safety differently in virtual reality and video-based experiments. • VR reveals increased brain activity when pedestrians are overtaken by cyclists in shared spaces. • Prior experience with pedestrian–cyclist accidents amplifies brain responses. • Brain activity provides an objective measure of pedestrian experience in complex traffic environments. Accurately assessing pedestrians’ safety perceptions is essential for human-centric design, improving actual safety outcomes, and promoting walking in urban areas. However, the coexistence of pedestrians with micromobility users, such as cyclists, in shared spaces introduces complex interaction dynamics that challenge accurate evaluation using conventional methods. Traditional tools, such as image- or video-based surveys with Likert-scale questionnaires, are cost-effective but often limited by hypothetical bias and subjectivity. To address these limitations, we compare pedestrian experiences during bicycle interactions in both virtual reality (VR) and video-based environments using self-reported Likert-scale ratings and brain activity data. Participants were evaluated in two infrastructure scenarios: separated and shared lanes. The results show that brain response significantly increases when a pedestrian is overtaken by a cyclist in shared spaces, an effect observable only in VR, not in video-based conditions, highlighting VR’s superior ability to capture spatial cognition. Moreover, individuals with prior negative experiences, such as involvement in bicycle-related accidents, exhibit heightened brain activity during shared-space encounters in VR, a pattern not reflected in their subjective ratings. These findings underscore the value of brain response as an objective measure for understanding pedestrian experience in complex traffic environments. They also demonstrate the potential of immersive technologies to advance the assessment of perceived safety and guide the design of safer, more inclusive pedestrian infrastructure.