Physical and Psychological Factors Influencing the Acceptance of Vibrations on Lightweight Footbridges

Especially lightweight and long-span footbridges are prone to vibrations and oscillations induced by users or environmental factors. While the interaction between construction, structure, stability and resulting vibrations have been investigated thoroughly in the past, research assessing user experience remains sparse.

In this paper, we discuss which factors may influence user’s acceptance of footbridges. We propose a taxonomy consisting of properties of the bridge construction, the environmental situation and human and psychological factors. Psychological factors like emotional states (i.e., varying psychological status like e.g., fear of heights, stress), cognitive factors (e.g., knowledge, reasoning and cognitive control of emotions) and personality traits (i.e., quite constant characteristics of the user’s personality) are discussed with their potential to influence user’s acceptance of footbridges.

In our paper, we present the possible interplay of those bridge factors, environmental factors and human factors. Our taxonomy will help to improve footbridge design with respect to user’s experience and acceptance.

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