Isolated and Single Pedestrians and Pedestrian Groups on Sidewalks

Walking freedom can define the quality of an urban area, but this freedom is conditioned by various factors. The research objective is to study pedestrian behavior on sidewalks. Data are collected during on site surveys by means of concealed camcorders. For each pedestrian many factors are observed, such as gender, age, direction, distractions, transport of objects, etc., which could influence pedestrian behavior. Data processing allows the identification of mathematical models describing the average pedestrian's behavior, subdivided for user type (isolated, single, group). In general, the mean walking pedestrian speed decreases depending on user type (in a linear manner if age class grows for isolated pedestrians, while with the square of age for other user types), of gender, and of facing type. Models obtained for the different pedestrian types were compared to understand the differences in speeds, underlining that pedestrian interferences play a significant role in defining behavior and, therefore, speed. The results support the idea that, to define a smooth pedestrian speed as an indicator of the walkability of a path, in addition to considering the path and user's characteristics, it is also necessary to define the type of user for which the infrastructure is designed.