Pedestrian behavior in downtown shopping areas

Pedestrians are flexible in their movements in terms of direction changes, which results in a large number of unique movements in pedestrianised areas. The complexity of pedestrian behaviour makes that the likely effects of changes cannot be assessed easily in advance. Previously, models have been developed to enable the prediction of pedestrian behaviour, and with that the likely effects of urban planning policy measures on pedestrian movements. Due to recent developments, resulting in changes in consumer behaviour and the retail branch, studying pedestrian behaviour is of importance in order to improve these models. This study aims to answer the research question “How can the behavior of pedestrians in the downtown shopping area of Eindhoven be measured and modelled in order to be able to predict the likely effects of urban planning policy measures on pedestrian flows?”. This in order to improve a model for the prediction of pedestrian behaviour, focussing on the horizontal displacement of pedestrians. Due to a lack of knowledge concerning the use of staircases, elevators and escalators in downtown shopping malls, research on the vertical movement behaviour of pedestrians in downtown shopping malls is included in this study as well. As found in the literature, each action performed by a pedestrian provides utility, which is aimed to be optimised. This utility maximization process includes the minimization of costs incurred while following another route than planned, avoiding other entities, or being forced to accelerate or decelerate. Dependent on the density, the interactions between pedestrians result in a certain number of manoeuvres to avoid collisions and stopping processes. Pedestrians judge this as the incurrence of costs due to the extra metres that are required to be walked. Thence, the distance pedestrians walk during a shopping trip turned out to be of great importance for their behaviour. Pedestrians tend to optimise their (sequence of) activities in order to minimise the walking distance of the shopping trip.