University Campus as a Complex Pedestrian Dynamic Network: A Case Study of Walkability Patterns at Texas Tech University

Abstract

Statistical mechanics of walks defined on the spatial graphs of the city of Lubbock (10,421 nodes) and the Texas Tech University (TTU) campus pedestrian network (1466 nodes) are used for evaluating structural isolation and the integration of graph nodes, assessing their accessibility and navigability in the graph, and predicting possible graph structural modifications driving the campus evolution. We present the betweenness and closeness maps of the campus, the first passage times to the different campus areas by isotropic and anisotropic random walks, as well as the first passage times under the conditions of traffic noise. We further show the isolation and integration indices of all areas on the campus, as well as their navigability and strive scores, and energy and fugacity scores. The TTU university campus, a large pedestrian zone located close to the historical city center of Lubbock, mediates between the historical city going downhill and its runaway sprawling body.