Pedestrian typologies - a sociological look on urban walkways

Representations of the pedestrian as a sole and healthy individual do not correspond to the reality and diversity of walking practices. The majority of urban pedestrians has to deal with constraints to their degrees of freedom in walking. We propose a typology of constraints, define and describe the “augmented pedestrian” and his “multi-task walk”. A qualitative study undertaken in Swiss urban districts aims to understand pedestrians in the complexity of their daily lives. The responsibilities assumed by individuals and the social ties that guide and structure their activities influence their walking experience. These elements have multiple visible or invisible repercussions which are expressed in terms of the physical and mental load and the corresponding increased need for energy and attention, limiting the degrees of pedestrians spatial and temporal freedom. Examples are: things to carry, tools to use, care responsibilities and activities, temporal pressure or emotional engagements. They may vary at each mobility activity or change during the mobility action. The pedestrian has to be understood as "augmented pedestrian”, performing a “multi-task walk” with several activities in parallel. The results show that the social reality of pedestrians has an influence on the spatial and temporal freedom of walking. Physical constraints go far beyond the limits already imposed by their own bodies. We identified three different types: 1. Individual long-term constraints 2. Individual constraints of short and middle term 3. External and inter-individual constraints More than half of the pedestrians observed in this study walked visibly with one and often with several physical and temporal constraints. More women were affected by external and inter-individual constraints, with more parallel tasks than men. Three times as many adult women as adult men had a physical commitment beyond walking. Three times as many female pedestrians as male pedestrians accompanied someone. The study showed that pedestrians needs and expectations of urban infrastructure - and its use - vary greatly. For example, persons with individual constraints of long-term seem to avoid crowded footpaths and those with high-speed walkers. Any increase in the numbers of pedestrians may lead to a subtle exclusion of this user group.