Incorporating the Effect of Special Events into Continuous Count Site Selection for Pedestrian Traffic

Abstract

This paper presents results from pedestrian monitoring research conducted in a dense urban environment in Winnipeg, Canada. Pedestrian counts were conducted in downtown Winnipeg using infrared pedestrian counters. Count sites were assigned to traffic pattern groups (TPGs) based on their response to special events occurring in the study area. Once these groups were established, eight continuous count sites were installed to initiate an ongoing pedestrian traffic monitoring program for the city. Traffic monitoring efforts have primarily focused on motorized travel. As more jurisdictions prioritize active transportation, addressing the need for network-level pedestrian data is essential to optimize engineering decisions. The first step to developing any system-wide traffic monitoring program is to define TPGs. These groups enable the spatial variation of short-duration counts to be adjusted to annual statistics by the temporal variation of similarly behaving continuous counts. Short-duration count sites were characterized by daily and hourly trends consistent with existing pedestrian traffic monitoring practices. Recognizing the influence of large evening events on pedestrian traffic, a metric was developed called the evening proportion ratio (EPR) to quantify the effect of special events. Based on the spatial distribution of EPR values, two TPGs were developed for downtown Winnipeg. These are the “urban utilitarian” and “urban utilitarian – event” groups. These groups were used to select continuous count locations for ongoing pedestrian traffic data collection. The importance of this research lies in its future applicability to other jurisdictions in developing a standard approach for urban transportation authorities to strategically implement pedestrian traffic monitoring programs.