Public Life Study

The Public Life Study collects two types of data:

1. Behaviour observations: Quantitative data is collected through observation about who is using a space and what they are doing there.

2. Intercept surveys: Subjective data is collected through a short wellbeing survey that intercepts people to ask them how they feel in a given space (measuring qualities such as sociability, trust, and belonging). 

These data help you understand who is using the space, what they do in the space, and how they feel while there. For example, in our study of Vancouver's Pavement-to-Plaza program, we found that women felt safer and more comfortable socializing in newly created public plazas, compared to at regular street blocks nearby.

The data you collect can help inform future design and programming improvements, and can even help build the case for greater investments in public space—in communities worldwide.

You can study any space—like a street, plaza, park, patio, sidewalk, or otherwise. However, the Study is primarily designed to help you assess a space that has been transformed through some kind of placemaking intervention (like a design change or events programming). In this way, you can study a 'transformed' space and compare your results with a control site (either, the site before the transformation takes place, or a comparable 'non-transformed' site nearby).

Once you fill out the form above, you will receive the link to download all instructions and worksheets you need to complete the Public Life Study.

In addition, the Study will require a small amount of your organization's resources (staff or volunteer time) to collect the data. We recognize that many organizations have limited capacity. As such, we've designed the Study to be flexible to meet your team's needs (for example, you may opt to reduce the number of hours spent on site if you want to conduct a smaller study).

Typically, organizations could expect to have at least two staff or volunteers conduct the Study together.

Typically, we expect the study will take:

• Approximately 2 hours to plan your Study (e.g. what site you will study, what times of day you will visit, who will conduct data collection)

• Approximately 4-6 hours of staff or volunteer time to collect data (split across several 1-2 hour sessions)

• Approximately 2 hours of time to digitize your data

After these steps are complete, you can submit your data sheet to Happy Cities to receive a free analysis in return. Should you wish to complete your own data analysis, that may require additional staff time from your organization.

Since the pandemic, interest in public spaces has grown. Communities big and small recognize the vital role that public spaces play in supporting our community wellbeing. Yet, we have relatively little data to measure exactly which kinds of public spaces are most successful.

Happy Cities was motivated to release our Public Life Study tool for free, because we've heard from placemakers that communities need simple ways to measure the impacts of their public space projects—and because great public spaces are for everyone.

We are asking organizations who use the tool to consider sharing their results back with us, so that we can start to build a national database of public space data. We aim to support community-led public space transformations by:

• Sharing learnings through stories, workshops, and other publicly accessible formats.

• Gathering evidence and data to advocate for greater investment in public spaces and placemaking.

• Making the data available to researchers for non-commercial uses to help share learnings and generate greater knowledge around the wellbeing benefits of public spaces.

Yes!

Happy Cities is pleased to offer a free analysis report when you submit your data. The free report is currently available to one Study per organization, per year.

Please fill out the form on this page to receive your instructions and learn how to conduct your own Study.

If you are interested in working together to conduct your Study or would like to discuss greater support with your data analysis, please email us: info@happycities.com

The Public Life Study can generate evidence and support to inform many kinds of projects, both small and large-scale, including:

• Public space design improvements

• Public space events and programs

• Temporary or permanent public realm transformations

• Converting road space into space for people

• Initiatives to make public space more equitable and inclusive

• Active transportation improvements

• Place-based retail studies

• Downtown revitalization projects

And many more!