Characterizing pedestrian traffic by hour-of-day periodicities in commercial zones

Abstract

The current state of pedestrian traffic monitoring is characterized by short-duration counts over inconsistent time intervals, making it difficult to compare data temporally at a location or spatially between different locations. Practitioners require understanding of hourly pedestrian traffic periodicities in order to maximize the utility of their short-duration counts. This research deployed six automated pedestrian counters at 12 study sites representing six roadway segments in Winnipeg’s commercial zones. Pedestrian traffic data was collected in 2012 over the summer and fall seasons. This research analyzes the influence of temporal and spatial factors on hourly pedestrian traffic periodicities to enable the characterization of hourly pedestrian traffic in commercial zones. Results indicate that short-duration counts be collected from Tuesday to Thursday on days with less than four hourly precipitation events. Additionally, pedestrian traffic varies seasonally and between adjacent sidewalks in commercial zones. Finally, characterization of pedestrian traffic pattern groups requires detailed land-use data.