Desirable streets: Using deviations in pedestrian trajectories to measure the value of the built environment

Abstract

The experience of walking through a city is influenced by amenities and the visual qualities of its built environment. This paper uses thousands of pedestrian trajectories obtained from GPS signals to construct a desirability index for streets in Boston. We create the index by comparing the actual paths taken by pedestrians with the shortest path between any origin-destination pairs. The index captures pedestrians' willingness to deviate from their shortest path and provides a measure of the scenic and experience value provided by different parts of the city. We then use computer vision techniques combined with georeferenced data to measure the built environment of streets. We show that desirable streets have better access to public amenities such as parks, sidewalks, and urban furniture. They are also sinuous, visually enclosed, have less complex facades, and have more diverse business establishments. These results further our understanding of the value that the built environment brings to pedestrians, enhancing our capacity to design more lively and functional environments.