Are cars visually threatening to pedestrians?

This paper examines the hypothesis that aggressive car design intimidates pedestrians and sends out inappropriate signals at a time when governments are encouraging people to walk rather than drive. It is based on the results of an earlier study on the impact of vehicle aesthetics on the residential street environment: was there a clash between the vehicle and its surroundings? Here, the authors focus on a different question: do pedestrians perceive the visual appearance of cars as threatening to themselves personally?