by Abigail Sekely and Ann Sussman

Aiming to increase ridership and improve the transit experience, the City of Chelsea, MA, engaged local artists and designers to add flowers and a new patterned walkway to a central MBTA bus stop.

“It’s not just about the functionality, but it’s also about creating an experience that’s joyful,” said Adrian Gill of Ad Hoc Industries, one of the leaders of the initiative, in The Boston Globe. “It is a fully immersive concept that we’ve created. It’s a very interactive environment.”

“It’s really kind of creating a bit of a destination spot at the bus shelter,” added project artist, Claudia Paraschiv, of Studioful Design.

The Human Architecture and Planning Institute, theHapi.org, contributed to the effort, using biometric tools to reveal the mechanisms behind why the artful interventions work.

A study with 3M’s Visual Attention Software, (VAS) which predicts where people look at-first-glance, shows how the bus stop before the intervention was likely ignored and how readily it comes into view with the added art and flower patterns. VAS displays results with four types of images, as shown below:

VAS-#1 Heatmap

Heatmaps glow brightest in areas that get the most attention, fading to blue in areas receiving less and then black in areas getting none. Note how sidewalk and roadway, at left, near the bus stop are almost all black, before intervention, and are less so, at right, after.

VAS-#2 Regions of Interest

The Regions of Interest (ROIs) diagrams, outlining in red where highest percentage of views likely fall, show attention goes to areas around the bus stop, rather than on it, before the intervention – and how things really do shift afterwards, with 72% of views falling directly on the bus stop with its added flower art.

VAS-#3 Areas of Interest

Area of Interest diagrams (AOIs), as shown below, drawn around specific areas to study, suggest how the artful bus stop draws attention away from the street light nearby. Before the intervention the street light attracted 76% of views and the bus stop only 60%; after the intervention, the bus stop gets 72% of views and street light views fall to 62%.

VAS-#4 Visual Sequence

Equally instructive, for understanding the project’s success, is checking out how the Visual Sequence diagram shifts before and after the installation.

Human visual perception happens in two phases; the first phase, during the first 3-to-5 seconds is driven by non-conscious visual processing triggered less than a second after we look at any ‘scene.’ VAS predicts how the brain has us take-in our surroundings in this first phase. Note, here, how the eyes focus around the bus stop rather than on it before the intervention, and directly on the bus stop after, with sequence 2 and 4 falling on the bus stop’s roof and bench.

It all goes to show how relevant it is to combine the arts and sciences. Good design acknowledges how humans work, and in our time, with access to remarkable tech, like 3M VAS, we now have the tools to help us do so, creating a happier, healthier pubic realm.

Thanks to the creative leadership team on this project including Boston Bus Rapid Transit initiative, ITDP, la Colaborativa, and City of Chelsea’s Public Works, for making the project happen and showing its possibilities.