A recent study reveals a 15% increase in pedestrian walking speeds in urban areas over the past 30 years, alongside a decline in lingering in public spaces. The insights could shape future urban planning and design.
City life is becoming faster-paced, and new research conducted by MIT researchers and their colleagues from several institutions confirms it. Pedestrian walking speeds in three northeastern U.S. cities have increased by 15% from 1980 to 2010, while the number of people lingering in public spaces has decreased by 14% over the same period.
The researchers utilized machine-learning tools to analyze video footage from the 1980s, originally captured by renowned urbanist William Whyte, in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offer new insights into the evolving dynamics of urban public spaces.
“Something has changed over the past 40 years,” co-author Carlo Ratti, a professor of practice of urban technologies and planning at MIT, said in a news release. “How fast we walk, how people meet in public space — what we’re seeing here is that public spaces are working in somewhat different ways, more as a thoroughfare and less a space of encounter.”
Whyte’s historic recordings from 1978 to 1980 included sites like Boston’s Downtown Crossing, New York City’s Bryant Park, the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street.
In 2010, a new set of videos was recorded at these same locations by a team led by co-author Keith N. Hampton, to observe and compare the current-day dynamics.
The comprehensive analysis showed that the percentage of pedestrians walking alone remained almost the same, increasing slightly from 67% to 68%. However, those entering these spaces and joining a group dropped from 5.5% to 2%, indicating a shift in public space usage.
“Public space is such an important element of civic life, and today partly because it counteracts the polarization of digital space,” added co-author Arianna Salazar-Miranda, an assistant professor at Yale University’s School of the Environment. “The more we can keep improving public space, the more we can make our cities suited for convening.”
Several factors could explain these behavioral changes, including increased cellphone use and the rise of indoor socializing venues.
“When you look at the footage from William Whyte, the people in public spaces were looking at each other more,” Ratti added. “It was a place you could start a conversation or run into a friend. You couldn’t do things online then. Today, behavior is more predicated on texting first, to meet in public space.”
The proliferation of coffee shops and indoor venues might also play a role. According to the paper, the shift towards indoor socializing means “people may have moved their social interactions into air-conditioned, more comfortable private spaces.”
The study is a significant step in understanding public space dynamics and has inspired further research. Ratti and his team at MIT’s Senseable City Lab are expanding their work to include an extensive survey of European public spaces.
“We are collecting footage from 40 squares in Europe,” added co-author Fabio Duarte, an associate director of the Senseable City Lab. “The question is: How can we learn at a larger scale? This is in part what we’re doing.”
The implications of this study are profound for urban planners and policymakers aiming to design more effective and engaging public spaces. The evolution in pedestrian behavior highlights the need to adapt public areas to better suit contemporary social habits while fostering civic engagement.