Trajectory Data Analysis on the Spatial and Temporal Influence of Pedestrian Flow on Path Planning Decision

Abstract

The modeling of walking behavior and design of walk-friendly urban pathways have been of interest to many researchers over the past decades. One of the major issues in pedestrian modeling is path planning decision-making in a dynamic walking environment with different pedestrian flows. While previous studies have agreed that pedestrian flow influences path planning, only a few studies have dealt with the empirical data to show the relationship between pedestrian flow and path planning behavior. This study introduces a new methodology for analyzing pedestrian trajectory data to find the dynamic walking conditions that influence the path planning decision. The comparison of the pedestrians’ path shows that the higher proportion of opposite flows are, the greater they influence the path selection decision. In this study, we investigate the relationship between the opposite flow changes and path planning behavior and find the spatial and temporal ranges of the opposite flow that affects the path planning behavior. Lastly, we find the ratio of pedestrians that update their paths with respect to the opposite flow rate.