Simulation of micro pedestrian behaviour in shopping streets

Over the years, scholars have developed various models of pedestrian movement. These models can be used to assess the effects of detailed design decisions or to predict pedestrian behaviour under conditions of crowding. To date, not much attention has been paid to pedestrians’ shopping behaviour at the micro level. Therefore, the main purpose of this project is to test a model that aims at simulating micro pedestrian behaviour in shopping streets, including entering shops. The model assumes a detailed network of links to represent the structure of street segments and entrances to the shops. The basic principle underlying the model is that a pedestrian moves from one link in the network to another, adjacent link. In fact, a pedestrian enters a segment at one side, heading for the other side of the segment. However, a pedestrian might enter the segment by leaving a shop as well. Then, the pedestrian might be heading for either side of the segment. While transferring from the current link to the next link, the pedestrian will be attracted by the shops along both sides of the street. The study area is Antwerp’s main shopping street. During a one-week workshop in July 2004, students observed pedestrian movement in this shopping street. An inventory of some physical characteristics of the shopping street was made and pedestrians were tracked through two separate segments of the shopping street. In total, 334 pedestrians were tracked. A conventional multinomial logit model is used to simulate pedestrians’ micro behaviour. The process of consecutively selecting links continues until the pedestrian has reached one of the terminal links or a shop. The model performs very well. Simulated routes were used to assess the validity of the model. Observed and simulated link loading correspond fairly well, however, the model seems to slightly mispredict the attraction of a number of shops.