Pedestrian Volume Studies
Let’s count pedestrians!
There are three ways to count pedestrian volume through manual counting, automatic counting, and video counting.
The count data is used to generate general statistics of the area (e.g. percentages of genders, volume directions, ages, etc.) to create volume patterns. A short-time model (e.g., 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, etc.) expands it to hourly volumes. In general, 15-minute periods are used as the base value for the rate of flow (Roess, et al., 2004).
The average daily (24hr) volume distributions in four residential neighborhoods in the city of Haifa considering three peak periods: morning peak (7–8), a noon peak (12–13), afternoon peak (16–19)
Volume patterns differ between different places (land use diversity), mainly because all the different activities that users perform are not concentrated in one area (FHWA, 2001).
Manual counting (paper & pen)
Automatic counting (sensor)
Video counting (camera & computer)
Example of counting exercise: “How do pedestrians choose routes during evening peak hours?”
Location: Central Square, Cambridge / 24 spots
Time: Evening peak hour (5–8 pm), 15-min count
Let’s do your own excersice!
Betweenness Analysis by NNA Toolbox
Set up “Origins / Destinations / Research Question and Hypothesis”
Materials: counting sheet, pen, clicker for counting, camera, etc.
Counting sheet download — Link
Example file of NNA Toolbox — Link
