Discovering tools for safer streets and liveable housing environments

This training session is designed as a discovery and learning space for cities and urban stakeholders seeking practical tools to improve streets, public space and the everyday environments surrounding housing. It is grounded in the recognition that housing adequacy is shaped not only by the dwelling itself, but by the quality, safety and accessibility of the public spaces that connect homes to services, care networks and social life. This session introduces a portfolio of complementary tools organised along a practical learning pathway that reflects how cities diagnose problems, understand lived experience and design interventions. First, participants explore tools that help understand how streets and housing environments function. These include non-intrusive drone-based observation of traffic flows, interactions and conflicts; LiDAR-based analysis of sidewalks and pedestrian infrastructure; and AI-supported semantic segmentation of street-view imagery to identify key visual features such as greenery, enclosure and visual complexity. Second, the session focuses on tools that reveal how streets and residential environments are experienced. Human–AI hybrid learning models trained on human judgements are presented alongside participatory methods such as walking audits and walk-along interviews. Together, these approaches capture perceptions of safety, comfort and well-being, as well as everyday practices related to care, age, gender and accessibility that remain largely invisible in conventional datasets. Finally, participants are introduced to tools that support testing and shaping better futures. Simulation models demonstrate how alternative regulatory, design or operational scenarios can be assessed before implementation and communicated to residents. Behavioural interventions such as Nudge30 illustrate how street design can subtly influence driver behaviour and improve safety without intrusive infrastructure. Interpretable AI approaches show how complex analyses can be translated into transparent, actionable policy insights. Examples from applied research and practice, including REALLOCATE and JUST STREETS, are used illustratively throughout. Rather than promoting technology for its own sake, the training emphasises critical methodological choice, enabling participants to select, adapt and combine tools that support safer, more inclusive and more liveable housing environments across diverse global contexts.