Spatial Sense of Safety for Seniors in Living Streets Based on Street View Image Data

Abstract

As the global population ages, the friendliness of urban spaces towards seniors becomes increasingly crucial. This research primarily investigates the environmental factors that influence the safety perception of elderly people in living street spaces. Taking Dingzigu Street in Tianjin, China, as an example, by employing deep learning fully convolutional network (FCN-8s) technology and the semantic segmentation method based on computer vision, the objective measurement data of street environmental elements are acquired. Meanwhile, the subjective safety perception evaluation data of elderly people are obtained through SD semantic analysis combined with the Likert scale. Utilizing Pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis, the study comprehensively examines the impact of the physical environment characteristics of living street spaces on the spatial safety perception of seniors. The results indicate that, among the objective environmental indicators, ① the street greening rate is positively correlated with the spatial sense of security of seniors; ② there is a negative correlation between sky openness and interface enclosure; and ③ the overall safety perception of seniors regarding street space is significantly influenced by the spatial sense of security, the sense of security during walking behavior, and the security perception in visual recognition. This research not only uncovers the impact mechanism of the street environment on the safety perception of seniors, but also offers valuable references for the age-friendly design of urban spaces.