The Pace of Pedestrian Flows in Cities

Abstract

The article discusses the proposition that the pace of life in big cities is faster than in other sizes of settlement, thus creating conditions conducive to the high levels of social pathology found in those cities. Observation of over 1,300 pedestrians at 10 places in Australia and England revealed that walking speed is a function of city size in that pedestrians move more quickly in big cities than in small towns. The influence of city size was, however, found to be more gradual than had been suggested in some earlier studies. In addition, the age and sex of the pedestrian, the degree of congestion in the areas under study, the time of day, and possibly even the weather had an influence on walking speed.