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A. Millonig, N. Brändle:
"What Type of Pedestrian are You? Walking Patterns and Route Preferences of Shoppers.";
Poster: Walk21 10th International Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities, New York, USA; 2009-10-06 - 2009-10-09.

In recent years a lot of effort has been made in order to create walkable, attractive urban environments for pedestrians. Most activities have been focusing on the design of pedestrian-friendly cities. However, promoting walkable environments and encouraging occasional walkers to increase their walking activities requires comprehensive knowledge about pedestrians´ needs and desires. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the factors influencing pedestrian behaviour, e.g. the reasons prompting people to enjoy walking in specific environments and to avoid others.

As part of the scientific project UCPNavi we collected more than 350 interview datasets of pedestrians in an indoor and an outdoor shopping environment in order to examine individual walking patterns, related influence factors and walking-related preferences. Additionally, lifestyle-related factors are included in the analysis (e.g. general habits, attitudes and preferences). The categorisation of the collected data leads to the detection of specific pedestrian behaviour types, which will form the basis for identifying type-related requirements concerning the design of urban space. The outcomes of the study can be used by urban planners and authorities for creating high-quality urban environments which satisfy the needs of particular pedestrian groups.

In this contribution, we present the results of the analysis of interviews collected in two consecutive empirical phases, including identified key attributes and classes of homogeneous behaviour. We compare the outcomes of data analyses based on two different interview techniques (brief standardised interview and semi-standardised interview) and in different investigation fields (indoor and outdoor). Differences between group-related route quality preferences are discussed and suggestions for considering particular needs of specific pedestrian types are given.