The Pace of Pedestrian Flows in Cities

The article discusses the proposition that the pace of life in big cities is faster than in other sizes of settlement, thus creating conditions conducive to the high levels of social pathology found in those cities. Observation of over 1,300 pedestrians at 10 places in Australia and England revealed that walking speed is a function of city size in that pedestrians move more quickly in big cities than in small towns. The influence of city size was, however, found to be more gradual than had been suggested in some earlier studies. In addition, the age and sex of the pedestrian, the degree of congestion in the areas under study, the time of day, and possibly even the weather had an influence on walking speed.

[1]  L. Wirth,et al.  Urbanism as a Way of Life , 1938, American Journal of Sociology.

[2]  H. Selye The Stress of Life , 1958 .

[3]  J. E. Cotes,et al.  The energy expenditure and mechanical energy demand in walking. , 1960 .

[4]  R. Lazarus Psychological stress and the coping process , 1970 .

[5]  M P Murray,et al.  COMPARISON OF FREE AND FAST SPEED WALKING PATTERNS OF NORMAL MEN , 1966, American journal of physical medicine.

[6]  R. J. Wheeler,et al.  PEDESTRIAN FLOW CHARACTERISTICS , 1969 .

[7]  S. Milgram The experience of living in cities. , 1970, Science.

[8]  John J. Fruin,et al.  Pedestrian planning and design , 1971 .

[9]  P. Ellsworth,et al.  The stare as a stimulus to flight in human subjects: a series of field experiments. , 1972, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[10]  W R Bowerman Ambulatory Velocity in Crowded and Uncrowded Conditions , 1973, Perceptual and motor skills.

[11]  C. Korte,et al.  Helpfulness in Dutch society as a function of urbanization and environmental input level. , 1975 .

[12]  Jonathan L. Freedman Crowding and behavior , 1975 .

[13]  M. Bornstein,et al.  The pace of life , 1976, Nature.

[14]  I. Hoch City Size Effects, Trends, and Policies , 1976, Science.

[15]  J. C. Russell,et al.  Informational Properties of Jaywalking Models as Determinants of Imitated Jaywalking: An Extension to Model Sex, Race and Number , 1976 .

[16]  G. Cavagna,et al.  Mechanical work and efficiency in level walking and running , 1977, The Journal of physiology.

[17]  Attributional Consequences of Personal Space Invasions , 1978 .

[18]  James A. Russell,et al.  Approach-Avoidance and Affiliation as Functions of the Emotion-Eliciting Quality of an Environment , 1978 .

[19]  Scott C. Hayward,et al.  Effects of Urban Noise and Sidewalk Density upon Pedestrian Cooperation and Tempo , 1978 .

[20]  M. Ciolek SPATIAL BEHAVIOUR IN PEDESTRIAN AREAS , 1978 .

[21]  Unhelpful Behavior in the Street , 1979 .

[22]  Rural Communities: A Social Geography , 1979 .

[23]  Marc H. Bornstein,et al.  The Pace of Life: Revisited , 1979 .

[24]  Robert J. Smith,et al.  Affective and cognitive mediators of reactions to spatial invasions , 1979 .

[25]  C. Korte,et al.  Traffic Noise, Environmental Awareness, and Pedestrian Behavior , 1980 .

[26]  P. Amato,et al.  The impact of the built environment on prosocial and affiliative behaviour: A field study of the townsville city mall , 1981 .

[27]  M. Pearce,et al.  Determinants of self-selected walking pace across ages 19 to 66. , 1982, Journal of gerontology.

[28]  Abishai Polus,et al.  Pedestrian Flow and Level of Service , 1983 .

[29]  P. Amato,et al.  Affiliative Behavior in Diverse Environments: A Consideration of Pleasantness, Information Rate, and the Arousal-Eliciting Quality of Settings , 1983 .

[30]  P. R. Sparks,et al.  A comparison of pedestrian comfort criteria applied to a city center , 1983 .

[31]  R. Levine,et al.  Pace of Life, Punctuality, and Coronary Heart Disease in Six Countries , 1984 .

[32]  D. Walmsley,et al.  Human geography: Behavioural approaches , 1984 .

[33]  Michael R. Hill,et al.  Stalking the Urban Pedestrian , 1984 .

[34]  C. J. Khisty Pedestrian Cross Flow Characteristics and Performance , 1985 .

[35]  D. Walmsley,et al.  Urban Living: The Individual in the City , 1988 .

[36]  F. Tönnies,et al.  Community and Society , 1988 .