Te Ara Mua – Future Streets: Can a streetscape upgrade designed to increase active travel change residents’ perceptions of neighbourhood safety?

Abstract

We aim to understand how a streetscape intervention, Te Ara Mua- Future Streets, designed to improve the ease and safety of active modes, influenced perceptions of neighbourhood safety and security in Māngere, New Zealand. In this controlled intervention study, survey, focus group and in-depth interview data on neighbourhood perceptions were gathered from adults and children in 2014 and 2017, before and after the intervention. General Linear Mixed Modelling (GLMM) was used to undertake a difference in differences analysis of the individual level survey data on traffic and neighbourhood safety perceptions. Focus group and interview data were analysed thematically. Survey data indicate improvements in neighbourhood safety but not traffic safety perceptions after the streetscape upgrade. Conversely, focus group and interview data suggest enduring fears around people and dogs, but an easing of traffic-related fears attributed to safer crossings and slower vehicle speeds. Our contrasting quantitative and qualitative findings demonstrate a complex interplay of neighbourhood people and place attributes in shaping residents’ experiences of safety and security, and therefore the importance of combining personal safety and traffic safety, as well as multiple measures, when investigating pathways between built environment change and active travel.