Human impression plays a crucial role in effectively designing infrastructures that support active mobility such as walking and cycling. By involving users early in the design process, valuable insights can be gathered before physical environments are constructed. This proactive approach enhances the attractiveness and safety of designed spaces for users. This study conducts an experiment comparing real street observations with immersive virtual reality (VR) visits to evaluate user perceptions and assess the quality of public spaces. For this experiment, a high-resolution 3D city model of a large-scale neighborhood was created, utilizing Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) data. The model incorporated dynamic elements representing various urban environments: a public area with a tramway station, a commercial street with a road, and a residential playground with green spaces. Participants were presented with identical views of existing urban scenes, both in reality and through reconstructed 3D scenes using a Head-Mounted Display (HMD). They were asked questions related to the quality of the streetscape, its walkability, and cyclability. From the questionnaire, algorithms for assessing public spaces were computed, namely Sustainable Mobility Indicators (SUMI) and Pedestrian Level of Service (PLOS). The study quantifies the relevance of these indicators in a VR setup and correlates them with critical factors influencing the experience of using and spending time on a street. This research contributes to understanding the suitability of these algorithms in a VR environment for predicting the quality of future spaces before occupancy.

The assessment of the quality of public spaces is crucial for fostering community well-being and urban development, contributing to the creation of inclusive, vibrant, and sustainable urban environments. It is possible to forecast the feeling imprinted in people by a future streetscape using virtual reality. Immersive visits are the best technological solution, given that a virtual environment of quality is provided with high quality resolution and urban details. The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) professionals involved in a large-scale real estate project under construction provided us with access to the BIM (Building Information Model) architectural plans of the entire infrastructure in the future district. A part of the neighborhood has already been built and is studied in this experiment: a public place with a tram station, a typical shopping street, and a pedestrian way, mainly a public place for leisure activity. These three points of view of interest will be studied with two modalities: real video showing the actual state of the built environment, and immersive visits using head-mounted devices, enabling virtual reality exploration of these public places. This article explains the practical construction of the 3D city model, and characterize the quality of the immersive visits through the use of questionnaires submitted to laypersons (non-expert participants).