Fessler, L., Guérin, S. M. R., & Delevoye-Turrell, Y. N. (2026). Effect of Traffic Separation and Nature Integration on Affect and Cerebral Oxygenation During Active Transport: An Immersive Virtual Reality and Multi-Study Design. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18403839 

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Increasing active transport, such as walking or cycling, is key to reducing human-driven greenhouse gas emissions and improving health outcomes. To facilitate the transition from private cars to active transport, it is crucial to create urban environments that induce positive experiences of active transportation, fostering positive affective memories and increasing the intention to use these modes in the future. The proposed programmatic registered report aims to investigate whether integrating traffic separation and nature integration into urban concrete environments during active transport sessions (i.e., cycling [Study 1] or walking [Study 2]) would improve the affective experience and result in changes to cerebral oxygenation. 

A minimum of 36 adults will take part in three 15-min, moderate-intensity cycling n = 18; Study 1) or walking (n = 18; Study 2) sessions. These sessions will involve three different virtual environments using the Meta Quest 3 headset: (a) an urban environment without traffic separation; (b) an urban environment with traffic separation; and (c) an urban environment with traffic separation and natural features. Affective valence will be measured six times during each session using self-report questionnaires. To assess the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive effort in relation to physical activity, haemodynamic responses in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) will be monitored using multichannel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) throughout the sessions. Remembered pleasure will be measured after each session, using self-reported questionnaires. It is hypothesised that the separation of motorised and non-motorised traffic in an urban concrete environment will lead to higher affective valence (H1) and remembered pleasure (H2), as well as lower cerebral oxygenation of the dlPFC (H3). We expect this effect to be magnified by the inclusion of natural features. Pilot data (n = 9) indicated that the protocol was considered to be acceptable (M = 5.74 ± 1.30 out of 9), with low-to-moderate cybersickness reported (M = 33.92% ± 19.64), indicating that virtual scenes and body movements were well synchronised.

The findings are expected to advance the theoretical understanding of how environmental influences impact affective variables and prefrontal activation. This experimental research will pave the way for future empirical studies, such as randomised controlled trials, examining how urban design can facilitate the transition to active transport.