Donald Appleyard was a professor of Urban Design at the University of California, Berkeley. During his career he pursued a strong interest in the livability of cities and neighborhoods, particularly upon streets. In particular, he studied the social effects of traffic and neighborhood layout, and devised sensitive tools for the analysis of peoples' environmental perceptions.
In a groundbreaking study [streetfilms.org] conducted in 1969, Donald Appleyard provided the first emperical evidence of the impact of traffic on neighborhood streets. In particular, he investigated 3 different streets in San Francisco that were chosen to be as identical as possible in every dimension except for one - the amount of traffic on each street. The study was able to show that just the mere presence of cars, with their implied aspects of danger, noise and pollution, crushes the quality of life in neighborhoods.
(There's a short video documentary on the page)
http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/11/research_mapping_the_impact_of_...
via information asthetics infosthetics.com