The Images That Boost Support for Sustainable Transportation
AI-generated illustrations of streets with bike lanes, bus lanes and fewer cars have the power to persuade, a new study finds.
An AI rendering of what a pedestrian- and bike-friendly street could look like in Austin.
Street View © 2022, Google / Courtesy of Rachit Dubey, Rahul Bhui, Thomas L. Griffiths and Mathew D. Hardy.
Efforts to limit cars on some streets and create pedestrian or bike-friendly infrastructure have become polarizing in the US, with some opponents seeing them them as a restriction on movement and a “war on cars.”
But people who see what living with fewer vehicles looks and feels like are more likely to find these kinds of greener communities desirable. That’s the takeaway from a new study in the journal Nature, which found that showing AI-generated images of a less car-reliant American city boosted support for sustainable transportation policies.