The Trick-or-treat test: human factors in urban design

Amanda van Lamsweerde, Ph.D., Research Psychologist II

It's October, which means Halloween, which means candy. Although it's no longer socially appropriate for me to dress up and go door to door asking strangers to feed me candy, it turns out I can scope out the neighborhoods that have a lot of trick-or-treaters and use that to gauge a neighborhood's design.
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​The attractiveness of a neighborhood to trick-or-treaters actually says some pretty interesting things about how well a neighborhood is designed overall.  A multitude of design factors come together to create a killer trick or treating neighborhood, and these same factors affect overall livability.

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Urban design can have a big impact on human behavior, with factors such as mixed use neighborhoods, higher population density, and high connectivity leading to greater walking and biking behavior (Saelens, et al., 2003) which can potentially increase overall physical activity and health of a community (Handy et al., 2002). Designing around people can really make a difference! So what does trick or treating say about a well-designed neighborhood? Most of the factors that lead to a neighborhood passing the trick or treat test combine into a feeling that the neighborhood is safe and walkable. It turns out some of these factors can have a measurable impact on a feeling of community and resilience.

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Easy-to-access front doors, tree-lined streets, sidewalks, and windows on the front of the house say "this is a safe, walkable neighborhood. Also, you can get from house to house quickly and really stockpile that candy."

The House

• Neighborhoods with houses that have front doors that are easy to find from the street (rather recessed front doors, with prominent garage doors in front) are more trick-or-treatable, because kids can more quickly find the door, hit up the residents for the good stuff, and move on. Turns out, this is also a great neighborhood feature. I had a friend who was recently shopping for a house, and she specifically did not want a house that had a huge garage door in front, because she thought they were ugly and uninviting. In the neighborhood where I grew up, all the houses were designed this way (big garage right out front, "front" door rarely used), so I thought big-garage-out-front style was pretty normal and that she was totally weird for being against it. It turns out my friend was right: porches and prominent front doors signal that the street is a pleasant place to be, with the goal of drawing people out into the front of the home and encouraging people to get to know their neighbors. This concept has been supported by research, with front porches and sidewalks being positively associated with 'neighborliness' (Wilkerson et al., 2011). Relationships between neighbors can have far-reaching effects, such as improving community resilience during a disaster (Cheshire, 2015).
• Windows and doors facing the street signal that the neighborhood is being watched and makes people feel safer. Apparently parents are into the whole safety thing when it comes to their kids running around asking strangers for candy.

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Garage-front homes with winding, non-connected streets are designed for cars, not people. Image from CityLab (https://www.citylab.com/design/2011/09/street-grids/124/)

The Streets

• Walkable streets are created with a combination of aesthetic (e.g., lined with trees) and practical (e.g., connected streets, sidewalks, low speed limits, cross walks) considerations. Connected streets are great for trick or treaters to make it easier to cross between neighborhoods and gather more candy and for parents to feel comfortable with their children walking them. Walkable streets are also great for neighborhood design and may even promote more active lifestyles:  walkable streets are associated with increased walking time (Saelens, B. E., Sallis, J. F., Black, J. B., & Chen, 2003) and higher street connectivity is related to increased odds of children walking to school (although this is mitigated by streets designed for heavy traffic: Giles-Corti et al., 2010). ​

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Does your neighborhood pass the trick-or-treat test?
Bonus: If you want to calculate the candy density of your neighborhood (and who doesn't?) check this out: http://www.paullknight.com/2012/10/30/maximize-your-halloween-with-new-urbanism/
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Cheshire, L. (2015). ‘Know your neighbours’: disaster resilience and the normative practices of neighbouring in an urban context. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 47(5), 1081-1099.
Giles-Corti, B., Wood, G., Pikora, T., Learnihan, V., Bulsara, M., Van Niel, K., ... & Villanueva, K. (2011). School site and the potential to walk to school: The impact of street connectivity and traffic exposure in school neighborhoods. Health & Place, 17(2), 545-550.
Handy, S. L., Boarnet, M. G., Ewing, R., & Killingsworth, R. E. (2002). How the built environment affects physical activity: views from urban planning. American Journal of Preventive <edicine, 23(2), 64-73.
Koohsari, M. J., Sugiyama, T., Lamb, K. E., Villanueva, K., & Owen, N. (2014). Street connectivity and walking for transport: role of neighborhood destinations. Preventive Medicine, 66, 118-122.
Saelens, B. E., Sallis, J. F., & Frank, L. D. (2003). Environmental correlates of walking and cycling: findings from the transportation, urban design, and planning literatures. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 25(2), 80-91.
Saelens, B. E., Sallis, J. F., Black, J. B., & Chen, D. (2003). Neighborhood-based differences in physical activity: an environment scale evaluation. American Journal of Public Health, 93(9), 1552-1558.
Wilkerson, A., Carlson, N. E., Yen, I. H., & Michael, Y. L. (2012). Neighborhood physical features and relationships with neighbors: does positive physical environment increase neighborliness?. Environment and Behavior, 44(5), 595-615.
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2016/10/the_trick_or_treat_test_is_amazing_zillow_ruined_it.html