Pedestrian Mobility Research Articles

Pedestrian mobility in the entrance zones of the gated communities in Wrocław, Poland, during COVID-19 pandemic

In recent times the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection remains increased, especially with direct contact or reduced distance to the infected person. This paper outlines the case study of pedestrian mobility in one of the residential estates in Wrocław, Poland. The pedestrian mobility was examined in gated community, which counts several hundred apartments. The entrance to the estate is provided by two wickets. Observations of pedestrian traffic were conducted for four weeks (October–November 2020) when the government introduced restrictions to limit virus transmission. Our research revealed that the limited number of entrances and fencing give the inhabitants sense of security, however it poses a threat in a pandemic period.

Making the slow metropolis by designing walkability: a methodology for the evaluation of public space design and prioritizing pedestrian mobility

ABSTRACT Focusing on the mobility aspects of big cities and metropolises, the paper starts with the assessment that the Slow City is linked, in terms of mobility, to slowing down traffic. This paper proposes the following working hypothesis: if the Slow City concept is relevant for making our bigger cities sustainable, it needs, in terms of mobility, to be adapted to the slowest mode of transportation: walking. To that extent, our research develops atool to evaluate the design of public spaces with regard to their affordance to walking (walkability) and to their prioritization of pedestrian mobility.

Analysis of winter thermal comfort conditions: street scenarios using ENVI-met model.

Rapid migration to cities and the increasing demand for housing negatively affect living areas. Furthermore, uncontrolled population growth, industrialization, urbanization, narrowing of urban areas, and expansion of cities cause physical boundaries. Urbanization growth and the cold climate restrict pedestrian mobility in the city. Therefore, hourly microclimate data of the city center streets were collected 1.5m above ground level in the winter period of 2019-2020. Then, different landscape design scenarios on pedestrian roads were investigated extensively using the ENVI-met V.4.4.2 winter model to determine the outdoor thermal comfort level. The RayMan model was utilized to generate the sky view factor (SVF) and analyze the mean values of the microclimate data. The proposed landscape design scenarios were as follows; (1) hard-covered street, (2) complete street coverage with a canopy, (3) street coverage with a semi-canopy, (4) sage of a combination of different plant species (30% deciduous, 30% coniferous, 30% bush), and (5) usage of ornamental pools in streets. The time period when pedestrians used the outdoor space was taken into consideration in evaluating and interpreting the analysis results. The findings of this study generally indicated that the semi-open canopy design provided roads with high thermal comfort such that people can walk and cycle in winter time. In conclusion, the thermal comfort condition of a street design, which is important for achieving sustainable urbanization, can be changed by making appropriate plan decisions. The findings of this study will help improve the outdoor thermal comfort in the first stage of urban planning and landscape street design for more livable and effective cities. This study emphasizes that a multidisciplinary team should work together to establish a healthy, sustainable, and livable urbanized area with thermal comfort in the streets.

Planning for sustainable urban mobility: Demand estimation of on-street vertical walking facilities

The improvement of pedestrian mobility through the use of on-street vertical facilities, i.e. escalators, moving sidewalks, lifts, funiculars and gondola lifts, is becoming increasingly important in many cities with steep slopes that hinder walkers’ transit. However, studies on the acceptance, profitability and demand for these facilities are still scarce. The present paper proposes an assessment methodology to evaluate the demand for vertical pedestrian routes and facilities based on diverse accessibility indicators. This methodology was applied to the city of Santander (Spain), where flow measurements and surveys among users of existing vertical walking systems were carried out. These data were modeled using Poisson and Binomial Negative regressions, considering the truncated and discrete character of the dependent variable. The results obtained confirm that vertical walking facilities are highly valued by users. Contrary to expectations, accessibility from these facilities to public services or commercial areas was not relevant to estimate the demand of the existing routes and only accessibility to population proved to be significant. Therefore, it is advisable to install this type of walking facilities in those pedestrian routes located in areas with enough population density over well-equipped central areas, so that the number of potential users justifies their investment and maintenance costs.

From Raw Pedestrian Trajectories to Semantic Graph Structured Model—Towards an end-to-end spatiotemporal analytics framework

Abstract The conditions and context in which pedestrians are exposed to the risk of road accidents, air pollution or epidemy are important for improving safety. Spatial information on pedestrian mobility was difficult and expensive to collect so far. This is changing with the popularization of several apps either for guidance or self-monitoring. Produced Space-Time Trajectories (STT) perfectly match the concept of temporal geography, as to assess pedestrian exposure to the above risks. In this article, we propose a modeling approach of pedestrian STT. The abstract model provides a high semantic expressiveness through spatiotemporal queries and a high-level graph representation of the data. We depict a whole framework for collecting and analyzing GPS logs generated by pedestrians’ devices, and discuss the system components. Among the targeted applications, a new generation of mobile applications can be developed that allow pedestrians to organize their daily activities and mobility, and minimize their exposure risks.

Why is necessary to reduce the speed in urban areas to 30 Km/h?

In Spain, on November 2020, a new law imposed that the generic speed limit on single carriageway two-lane roads is reduced from 50 km/h to 30 km/h.The changes in the general rules of traffic, proposed by the Spanish government, are a sample of the evolution, in the use of the shared space of the streets, and at the same time shows its sensitivity towards road safety. Traditionally, the objective of the regulation was to attend to the growing increase in the use of motor vehicles (mainly cars), and for this reason, it was the protagonist in most of the articles of the General Traffic Regulations. Today, in many cities, the car is no longer the protagonist and shares the space on the streets, not only with other motor vehicles as buses or motorcycles, but also with pedestrians, bicycles, electric pedal-assisted cycles (EPAC), personal mobility vehicle (PMV), …Pedestrian mobility is becoming more and more important every day but the number of pedestrians that died inside Spanish urban areas in road accidents is almost 50% of total urban areas road fatalities. In this sense, the mobility and road safety policies developed by local administrations have to focus on the objective of the reduction of accidents and their severity involving pedestrians and other vulnerable users in urban areas.This article collects studies and experiences in other countries that show the effects of reducing the speed of motor vehicles in urban areas in order to reduce accidents and/or their severity if they occur. It also analyzes other options that reinforce this measure and that could help reduce this problem.

Interpretación semiótica del sistema de semáforos: una forma de incidir en los accidentes de tráfico

This work is part of a larger research that involves the science of semiotics in order to study road infrastructure (road devices) in road crossings, using the theoretical contributions of Ferdinand de Saussure, Umberto Eco and Charles Sanders Peirce, with the purpose to support the safe mobility of citizens. Pedestrians use the roads for work, study, recreation, and other activities of daily living providing a harmonious and safe way for people to move either on foot, by car, bicycle, public or private transport services. One of these road devices is the traffic light system used to control road traffic at an intersection or road junction. This system's optimal and safe operation is related to the infrastructure of the urban space, which results in safe or unsafe mobility for pedestrians. In this sense, the semiotic interpretation of the state transition diagram for a traffic light system (green-amber-red / red-amber-green light change) is being proposed to recognize whether the road may be a dangerous place for users. The research aims to propose an improvement in pedestrians' conditions to reduce traffic accidents in the most conflictive and dangerous road intersections. These places were determined by the Secretaría de Salud (2012) and disclosed in its Second Report on the Situation of Road Safety in Mexico City.

A reactive system for pedestrian mobility simulation

Abstract Handling the microscopic level of Vehicle-Pedestrian interactions is highly useful for analyzing patterns-based pedestrian accident exposure. Recently proposed systems are based on vehicle-to-pedestrian communication to analyze real-time situations and thus warning both sides of potential crashes. Two parts are composing those systems. The first concerns network technologies ensuring direct communication between vehicles and pedestrians and the second is related to information processing analyzing and predicting trajectories and dangers. One of the most challenges facing the last systems category is to provide them with precise and sufficient data to test and improve them. Precisely, to analyze vehicle-pedestrian interactions, we suggest detecting pedestrian behavior with respect to its surrounding vehicles as well as detecting vehicle behavior with respect to its surrounding pedestrians. In this work, we consider generating pedestrians and vehicles’ data using SUMO. Moreover, we design a handler for preparing Vehicle-Pedestrian interactions data for upper layers for deep analytic and patterns finding purposes. Mixed realistic traffic simulation is performed in Mohammedia city and the first results are shown.

Valorização do pensamento pedestre

This article proposes to observe the porous relationship between the participation of different actors and the formulation of public policies in the field of urban mobility, with a central focus on the pedestrian mobility system in São Paulo. This system is here understood as the set of places of passage, but also of permanence and, as such, public space product of social relations. The analysis focuses on the first two decades of the 2000s, and culminates in the years 2020-2021, crossed by the pandemic triggered by Covid-19.

From Wayfinding Model to Future Context-based Adaptation of HCI in Urban Mobility for Pedestrians with Active Navigation Needs

ABSTRACT Everyday travel in expanding cities is becoming increasingly complicated. Going to the doctor, to work, to the cinema, or simply discovering the districts of a city requires knowledge of the city and navigation skills. The future challenge is more than just providing correct guidance to make navigation easier; it is more about delivering the relevant information when it is needed and prioritizing the continuous development of the users’ navigation skills. This article aims to present a novel model based on existing literature about the cognitive wayfinding process by proposing a state diagram for interactive system analysis and design. This diagram may help to illustrate different states of the wayfinding task and how navigation aid systems for pedestrians can consider this context awareness to create an adaptive behavior considering the spatial knowledge of the user. A first study, focusing on one state of the wayfinding process: Path Following state, and its results are presented illustrating one example of different studies that can be designed considering our wayfinding model. At the end of this article, we highlight a set of design guidelines that may lead to the next generation of navigation aid systems based on the wayfinding model.

How do people use Frankfurt Mainkai riverfront during a road closure experiment? A snapshot of public space usage during the coronavirus lockdown in May 2020

ABSTRACT In a one-year long experiment, the City of Frankfurt has limited the vehicular access to an 800 m stretch of its Mainkai riverfront as part of its plans to improve quality of life and support green mobility. With pre-intervention data collected in July 2019, this article presents the first results on how pedestrians, cyclists and other user-groups have been using this open public space in May 2020, i.e. post road closure and during the coronavirus restrictions. Based on pedestrian counts and behavioural observations, the authors report on a changed pedestrian mobility, spatial distribution and different stationary activities such as playing, sitting and socializing. The results show an increased peak hour frequency among cyclists (+45%) and pedestrians (+20%) on Mainkai street, along with more vulnerable user groups including including children cycling independently (+1150%) and people with restricted mobility (+25%). The study underlines related initiatives world-wide that pedestrianization acts as a catalyst for safer and healthier urban environments. Particularly, under the impression of an ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the study suggests that (temporary) road closure to cars is a key element in qualifying public space that attracts different user-groups and caters to an increased need to become physically active and engage socially while keeping distancing rules.

Developing levels of pedestrian physical distancing during a pandemic

The COVID-19 outbreak has fundamentally changed how people move around and live in a city. It is reported that the virus spreads through transmission via large droplets and/or small aerosols when an infected individual coughs or sneezes or even breathes or talks near an uninfected individual. This study considers the implications of physical distancing requirements for pedestrians using urban sidewalks. Pedestrian physical distancing can be described as a mobility intervention designed to limit virus infection by keeping people, for example, 2 m apart. Physical distancing assumes that the risk of transmission declines with the distance between people, but a more sophisticated approach than the current binary approach which is simply based on a single distance may help health agencies to evaluate and monitor how well physical distancing is being achieved. The study developed pedestrian physical distancing indicators to quantitatively evaluate different levels of physical distancing and proposed levels of pedestrian physical distancing that can be used to select and implement appropriate mobility interventions. This study also developed a mathematical process to estimate the relative risk of viral transmission between pedestrians under different pedestrian walking conditions. Finally, we demonstrated the application of the proposed approach in a simulated virtual walkway environment using PTV Viswalk. We hope the study can help decision-makers in health agencies to select the most appropriate pedestrian mobility interventions for limiting spread of the virus on urban sidewalks.

The Brontë Sisters on Foot: Walking as a Reconfiguration of the Brontë Myth in Sally Wainwright’s BBC Biopic To Walk Invisible

ABSTRACT This article examines forms and functions of pedestrian movement in Sally Wainwright’s television film To Walk Invisible (BBC, 2016) about the lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë. Proceeding from the premise that walking constitutes a core trope of the Brontë myth, the paper begins with a survey of figurations of walking in the biographies and works of the Brontë sisters, in filmic adaptations of their novels and lives, and in the industry of literary tourism in Haworth. In close readings of selected scenes from the biopic, the article illustrates that Wainwright employs walking as a versatile cinematic tool to characterise the three sisters and to assign to them different concepts of authorship. Furthermore, To Walk Invisible uses pedestrian mobility as a metaphor to critique gender ideologies of Victorian Britain for a contemporary audience and to market the Yorkshire moors as an attractive tourist destination. Finally, walking also features as a self-referential impulse in the film. It allows Wainwright to open a metaperspective on the Brontë myth in British heritage culture to which To Walk Invisible itself contributes as a literary biopic.

Assessment of pedestrian mobility on road networks in the City Of Kigali

This paper analyzed and assessed the pedestrians’ mobility issues that are affecting their free movement and safety in the City of Kigali by outlining the major challenges in the City and providing alternative solutions and measures for improving the mobility and safety of pedestrians. The methodology of the paper was designed based on qualitative method with application of structured and unobtrusive. Referring to the paper findings about the mobility challenges of pedestrians within the City of Kigali, it is noted that the mobility of the pedestrians and their safety is still low and typical problems including road crossing viewed as the second challenges about pedestrians mobility, walking along very close to the road networks due to insufficient footpaths, lacking of enough road signs, lacking of information about pedestrian behavior on road networks, and improper functioning of existing traffic signals as the first challenge. The paper found that the majority of road networks in the City of Kigali did not provide walkways, traffics signals designs and availability is very poor and some of them not functioning, zebra crossing facilities were not provided adequately, pedestrians shelter on bus stop are almost absent and ignored, vehicles travelling speed is still high and does not allow pedestrians to move freely, and the mobility of physically challenged people has been forgotten and there is a need of introducing the pedestrian overpass bridges in clouded zones of the city center, Nyabugogo, Kicukiro and Remera-Giporoso areas of the City of Kigali.
 Keywords: Mobility, Pedestrian Safety, Road Networks, Traffic Signals, Pedestrians.

Pedestrian itinerary choice: between multi-sensory, affective and syntactic aspects of the street pattern in the historic quarter of Bejaia, Algeria

Consideration of the five senses and emotions is not well explored in the urban environment. Different fields deal with the influence of the physical environment on human experience. However, the role of the multi-sensory experience and affectivity in selecting the itinerary for pedestrian mobility is not yet well studied. Several methods have been proposed to evaluate the correlation between pedestrian movement and the environmental configuration, where the visual parameter is the main determinant. Given that other senses could be used to select any itinerary, since the urban environment is perceived at a multisensory level, the aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between people's multisensory experience and their navigation in an urban environment in terms of itinerary choice. This study is carried out on the streets linking the city centre to the seafront in Bejaia, Algeria. The investigation was based on qualitative and quantitative methods. The former consists of the organised walk with running commentary technique. The latter consisted of a syntactic analysis of the street pattern. The results show that people choose their itinerary not only on the visual aspect created by the spatial configuration, but also on several variables related to the affectivity and multi-sensory experiences of the urban environment. The findings will be discussed with regard to their usefulness for the design and development of urban publics spaces.

Urban Commons in Active Mobility Experiences

Our study focuses on the challenges facing sustainable urban mobility in the megacity of Sao Paulo. We aim to explore the panorama of active mobility initiatives, proposing to analyze the relationship between urban commons and innovation in public services. We selected the Reduced Speed Zone and Complete Street initiatives, which aim to improve road safety conditions (public services focused on common infrastructure), active mobility and access to public transport, and may also potentially help to reduce noise levels, improve air quality (social dilemmas/common issues/negative externalities) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (global commons). Based on an analytical model for interpreting innovation in services, considering competences and techniques originating from the provider (municipal government) and users (through civil society organizations), our findings identified innovations at a local level within infrastructure treatment for pedestrians. These public services were introduced in a participatory process and a collective re-appropriation of urban space. The projects contribute to the development of service provider competences, related to various interactions with civil society, resulting in a systemic view with regard to the uses, local dynamics and behavioral aspects of the users themselves. Service provider techniques may be both temporary and permanent intervention methodologies, besides methodologies for project impact evaluations. These techniques are associated with tactical urbanism as a technique for temporary urban interventions. User techniques were identified for application of the propensity score-matching method, which aims to evaluate the impacts of an instance of intervention through the comparison of groups, as well as through technical inspections and local interviews. The relationship management generated relational and organizational competences for civil society organizations. However, despite the advances indicated by the analyzed experiences of active mobility – highlighting the role of civil society organizations – and by some progress made in the regulatory framework, innovative practices have been restricted to the treatment of infrastructure for pedestrians, a change of speed limit for vehicles, and horizontal signaling to mark the perimeter of these areas. Therefore, there is a large-scale potential for the continued introduction of innovations regarding the improvement and scale gains of public services for pedestrian mobility, promoting participatory restructuring as a form of (re)appropriation of urban public spaces by its own users, improving the current negative externalities and social costs of urban mobility.

Concrete, bollards, and fencing: exploring the im/mobilities of security at public events in Brisbane, Australia

ABSTRACT Large public inner-city events require a significant amount of temporary security infrastructures and altered mobility designs to safely facilitate the movement of the public throughout already highly mobile spaces. Recent security risks from vehicle attacks have resulted in increased security in order to mitigate potential threats. Issues arise as increased security infrastructures interrupt and redirect pedestrian mobility, reconfiguring traditionally ‘safe’ pedestrian and leisure spaces into ‘unsafe’ spaces under the pre-emptive atmosphere of unknown threats. This paper explores how im/mobilities arise through increased security during fireworks events in Brisbane, Australia. Using ethnographic observation and visual documentation of crowd movements, we critically examine the temporal alterations to wayfinding and mobility infrastructures. Although increased security serves to foster a safe and secure environment, we suggest that the altered mobilities and heightened visibility of security risks impacting on the overall festive atmosphere of the events.

Estimates of pedestrian exposure to atmospheric pollution using high-resolution modelling in a real traffic hot-spot

Atmospheric pollution is a very relevant risk for the human health, in particular in urban environments, where most people lives and high levels of pollution are found. Population exposure is traditionally estimated through concentration recorded at air quality monitoring stations (AQMS) or modelled at a spatial resolution of the order of 1 km2. However, these methodologies have limitations in urban areas where strong gradients of concentration, even in the same street, exist. In addition, the movements of pedestrians make difficult to compute reliable estimates of pollutant concentration to which people are exposed to. In this context, the main objective of this study is to estimate the exposure of pedestrians to ambient nitrogen oxides (NOx) concentrations with high spatial resolution in a real urban traffic hot-spot under different methodologies. To achieve this objective, a novel methodology which combines high-resolution NOx concentrations from computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations with the pedestrian flows obtained by pedestrian mobility microsimulations is applied to an urban area of Madrid, Spain. High-resolution maps show pedestrian exposure peaks, at bus stops and crosswalks, that cannot be captured by the simpler methods based on spatial average concentration (SAC) or concentration measured in an AQMS. Total daily exposure obtained is 1.19 · 109 person s μg m−3, while SAC and AQMS concentration methods yielded 9–23% and 30–40% lower values. In conclusion, the proposed methodology allows to determine the areas with higher exposure in order to design local strategies to reduce the impact on human health. In addition, from a more general point of view, the total exposure in the studied area is better estimated by using spatial average concentration than through concentration recorded by AQMS. The assessment of the spatial representative of AQMS becomes necessary to use AQMS concentration to evaluate air quality and population exposure of an urban area.

Analysis of Large-Scale Residential Development on Walking Environments in Surrounding Neighborhoods: A Before-and-After Comparison of Apartment Complex Developments in Seoul, Korea

Pedestrian mobility is an indicator of urban sustainability insofar as it affects walkability and social cohesion. This research focused on the relationship between large-scale residential development and the walking environments of surrounding neighborhoods in Seoul, Korea. Large-scale residential developments, such as apartment complexes, might disrupt pedestrian walking networks fully or partly, causing the separation of urban spaces and social disconnection. This paper conducted before-and-after analysis of apartment complex development on the walking environments of surrounding neighborhoods using the Urban Network Analysis (UNA) tool and Rhinoceros three-dimensional (3D) software. With UNA measures such as reach, gravity, straightness, and betweenness, this study examined three apartment complexes constructed between 2010 and 2017 in Seoul. Analysis results indicated that large-scale residential development in existing urban environments is likely to hinder walking environments in surrounding neighborhoods. This study suggests policy implications to improve walking environments in surrounding communities when large-scale apartment complexes are developed in existing urban environments.

New Indicators of Spatial Chaos in the Context of the Need for Retrofitting Suburbs

The article is dedicated to the phenomenon of spatial chaos in the suburban areas of Polish cities, which, due to uncontrolled scattering of buildings (urban sprawl), require urgent retrofitting. These activities should contribute to the gradual densification of buildings and the more frequent functioning of suburbanites in the local environment, close to the place of residence. The authors claim that the retrofitting of suburbs can be accomplished by impacting two dimensions of spatial chaos: limited pedestrian mobility around the place of residence (walkability) and low access to basic services. The article proposes a set of ten indicators and a synthetic index of spatial chaos that allow measuring the level of disorder in particular suburbs, and therefore on a smaller scale than a municipality, and at the same time refer to the features of the living environment typical of Polish suburbs. These indicators are a direct reference to the abovementioned dimensions of suburban spatial chaos and allow to estimate the degree of compactness of suburban settlements in its functional aspect. The research proved that the more sprawl-like features, the higher the level of spatial disorder.