In the second part of a four part series on America's pedestrian problem, Tom Vanderbilt evaluates the surprisingly formalized field of pedestrian behavior research, from navigating crowded sidewalks to tripping at the bottom of the stairs.
For someone keen on grasping the nuances of pedestrian behavior, the whole of the United States offers no better destination than New York City. And in the City, Vanderbilt writes, street corners offer some of the best views around:
"Here was a zone of serendipity where people encountered one another beneath the blinking walk man, where they paused to chat before parting, where they formed small convivial islands just as pedestrian flow was surging most strongly... The corner is urban punctuation, a place to pause, essential to the whole civic grammar."
As we discovered last month, social scientists have been analyzing pedestrian behavior since at least the mid-70s, when Jeff Zupan and Boris Pushkarev published Urban Space for Pedestrians. From how crowds pass each other at crosswalks to that awkward game of chicken that pedestrians so often unwittingly play, their research catalogs every minute quirk worth observing. "We were learning by just going out in the field," Zupan says. "If there was something we didn't understand, we went out and took a look."
But the past forty years have taken a considerable share of pedestrian behavior research out of the field, and into the computer. Now, in addition to standing at a crowded escalator and counting how many people opt for the stairs instead, researchers can build immensely complex models to anticipate how people behave under various conditions.
For example, high-density masses of pedestrians (7+ per square meter) begin to behave like a body of fluid, according to engineer John Fruin: "Shock waves can be propagated through the mass, sufficient to... propel them distances of 3 meters or more... People may be literally lifted out of their shoes, and have clothing torn off."
Many aspects of the research have valuable implications for architecture and urban design. Others, like "the way women (in particular) avoid subway grating on the sidewalk," might shed little more than novel insight on the habits we didn't realize we had. Either way, better understanding ourselves as the social, bipedal creatures we are may be an important step in bringing ourselves back to the street.
FULL STORY: Sidewalk Science

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie