Gresham Smith, a top-ranked architecture, engineering, design and consulting firm with $328 million in annual gross revenue and 26 offices across the United States, is excited to announce the results of an innovative campus safety study that was completed in collaboration with Vanderbilt University faculty using advanced transportation technology.
For the study, Gresham Smith used MPATH: Empathic Insights, the firm’s award-winning pioneering platform that quantifies and aggregates how people feel in different spaces. MPATH’s patented approach uses geolocation data and novel stress measurements from wearable devices to uncover places that cause stress and then proactively improve design using this information. MPATH allows users to potentially target high-stress areas before a true safety incident occurs. As part of the study, Vanderbilt University researchers made improvements to the MPATH algorithm that resulted in more precise measurements of pedestrian stress.
Using data collected from student volunteers between February to May 2023, the project team captured over 190,000 data points from 62 unique activities recorded throughout the study and concluded that several intersections should be considered for future infrastructure improvements. The results of the study were published in the Journal of Transportation Technologies, a peer-reviewed academic journal. The study found six priority hot spots, including:
- Natchez Trace (between West End Avenue and Vanderbilt Place)
- Edgehill Avenue and Pedestrian Bridge (between 21st Avenue South and Magnolia Circle)
- Elliston Place
- The path between Jacobs Hall, Buttrick Hall, Vaughn Home, and Bishop Johnson Black Cultural Center
- In front of Stevenson Center Complex
- Garland Avenue (near the Eskind Biomedical Library)
Participants provided verbal feedback on their walking experience at these high pedestrian-stress locations, suggesting that there is a need for improved visibility and lighting as well as interaction improvements to account for other modes of transportation, including motor vehicles, scooters and bicycles.
“During this pilot study, we learned that incorporating wearable technology with new tools like MPATH can really provide valuable insights into how people react to their surroundings,” says Vanderbilt University Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Dr. Mark Abkowitz, who co-authored the study. “We believe this study is just the beginning, and we’re actively exploring other applications dealing with different kinds of stress, such as heat and emergency response, to better understand the impact wearable technology can have for monitoring how people experience stress.”
“We were thrilled to get to work with faculty from Vanderbilt University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences on this first-of-its-kind study,” says Gresham Smith’s Director of Innovation Mike Sewell, who co-authored the paper. “Our study verifies a novel approach to analyzing the sensory impact on pedestrians and results suggest that the use of wearable technologies offers a promising opportunity to enhance pedestrian comfort and safety and help to promote greater use of walkability as a transportation mode in urban areas.”
Cities across the United States as well as in Europe are actively piloting MPATH to see how it can help them design safer streets for all. MPATH has also been recognized in several awards programs, most recently as one of Fast Company‘s 2024 World Changing Ideas Awards winners in the apps category, as well as the American Council of Engineering Companies’ 2024 National Recognition Award winners.
