Orange Theroy | My Site

The Orange Theroy

In 2023, the city of Berkeley, California struck down a measure to replace a line of parking along Hopkins street with a protected bike lane. Opponents of the proposed bike lane argued that it would hurt small businesses along the corridor. This made me start to wonder about how people biking and walking interact with street side shops as opposed to people in a car, so I created a research study called The Orange Theory: A study of how people in different modes of transportation interact with businesses.

The main Idea of The Orange Theory is quite simple, you find two places, one with high levels of pedestrian traffic, and one with high levels of vehicular traffic. In each location, you set up a stand that is giving away free oranges (its best if you do this on a warmer day as people may be more interested in oranges). Finally, you record the amount of people that visit the stand in each location.

This study is extremely simple, but it is a good representation of a corridor with businesses on it. The orange stand represents the stores, restaurants or other destinations along the street, and it shows how people walking/biking and people driving interact with those businesses.

My hypothesis is that many more walkers will stop by than drivers. My reasoning is that, when you are walking, you are not just more exposed to the sights and smells of nearby businesses, but it is much easier for you to stop in and take a look around, or in this case, grab an orange. Whereas, when you are driving, it is much harder to stop by and take a look around a store. You need to stop the vehicle, find parking, and go over to the store, all much harder that just taking a quick step inside. That is also assuming that you even notice the stores in the first place. Not only are you burdened with the task of driving the vehicle, but you are just physically much more isolated from your surroundings.

This study not only has a practical aspect to it, but it is also an opportunity for me to learn how to conduct a research study and analyze data. Currently, I am far too busy with school and rowing for me to conduct this study at this time, however, I will hopefully find a time to do it over a holiday break or summer.