Publication
The analyses of urban environments, norms, micro-census and scientific studies reveal a variety of myths about pedestrians. One of them is the dominant representation of the pedestrian: A single person, usually with healthy body and in leisure mode. Pedestrians seem to be considered like cars, with fixed masses, limits and manoeuvrings. After qualitatif observation of more than 9’000 urban pedestrians, we propose more nuanced typologies which better reflect their different realities. A first typology refers to constraints, categorising elements reducing the pedestrian's degrees of freedom and opportunities. We identified three mains types of constraints: individual constraints having their source in the pedestrian’s body of long term (Type 1) and short or medium term (Type 2). The third type is the most common, but also the least considered in studies and urban realities: external and inter-individual constraints (Type 3). The second typology concerns the relation between the physical process of moving on two legs and the spatial and temporal environment, described as “gait” and divided into five classes, from “de-terminated” to “strolling”. A third typology refers to the number of people walking together, creating therefore different and usually invisible rules and codes of walking. Each of the types described has different requirements on public realm. An interdependence of use and exclusion can also be observed. Planning based on a pure measurement of the number of bodies cannot meet these requirements. Studies for the future use and allocation of public space, e.g. with regard to self-driving vehicles, should be based on these typologies, as they allow a better understanding of pedestrians and therefore increase predictability. These typologies enable also the development of indexes, to analyse effects of interventions in public space and to count absent users and usages.
Vincent Kaufmann, Renate Albrecher