Data underlying the publication: Nudging pedestrian walking dynamics using light intensity and color

This dataset contains data collected during a Virtual Reality experiments at Delft University of Technology. The experiments took place 15 May 2024 until 2 June 2024. In this study, we studied whether light can be used to `nudge' pedestrians' operational walking dynamics. Specifically, we aimed to determine the extent to which light intensity and light color influence the average walking speed of pedestrians. Six light conditions are tested in a VR experiment: regular white light (approx. 100 lux), dark (approx. 1 lux), bright (approx. 300 lux), blue, green, and red light. This study concludes that A) the average walking speed decreases in darker light (10.4\%) conditions and increases in brighter light (7.7\%) or colored (2.8\%-8\%) conditions. In addition, pedestrians decelerate more slowly and cautiously in dark light conditions, while the acceleration and deceleration profile do not significantly change for bright, blue, green, and red light conditions. <br>In addition, this study assessed whether a wireless HMD can be used to study pedestrians' average walking dynamics because a relatively new type of VR simulator was adopted. The validation analysis concludes that VR experiments featuring wireless HMD and open-plan movements overestimate step time (+7.5\%) and step length (+12.8\%) and underestimate the average walking speed (-22.8\%). In addition, we find that relative trends regarding the impact of socio-demographic characteristics on the mean of the three analyzed metrics can, in most cases, be reproduced. <br>This dataset is being made public both to act as supplementary data for publications and in order for other researchers to use this data in their own work.