Isolated and single pedestrians and pedestrian groups on sidewalks

Walking freedom can define the quality of the 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 pedestrians behavior, subdivided for user type (isolated, single, group). In general, the mean walking pedestrian speed decreases depending on user type (in linear manner if age class grows up for isolated pedestrians while with the square of age for others users types), of gender and of facing type. Models obtained for the different pedestrians types were compared to understand the differences in speeds, pointing out that pedestrian interferences play a significant role in defining behavior and therefore speed. Results support the idea that, to define a smooth pedestrian speed as indicator of the "walkability" of a path, in addition to considering path and users characteristics is also necessary to define the type of user for which the infrastructure is designed.