Studying Pedestrian Movements in Central Shopping and Business Areas with a Dedicated Geographical Information System

Abstract

This paper pays attention to pedestriansi route choice behaviour in central shopping and business areas, and the various ways this behaviour can be investigated. One of the tools available to carry out this kind of analysis is currently offered by the GIS-software TransCAD. This dedicated GIS software offers a route system routine that is suitable to store and examine in details pedestrians” movements. In order to deeply explore the potential of these tools, they are used to investigate pedestriansi movements in the central shopping and business area of Montreal (Canada). More than 360 individual routes have been entered in the route system. These observed routes were compared with (shortest path) routes generated by TransCAD using different network settings. The first network was based on the length of links. A second network was based on both the length of links and the fact that a link was an underground link or not. The final network was based on the length of links in combination with several characteristics of the links (such as presence of shops, presence of restaurants, presence of offices, and located in Old Montreal). The investigation shows that it is very easy to generate alternative routes based on different network settings. The routes generated with the network based on several characteristics of the network links correspond best with the observed routes. This network is used to generate routes after some planning measures (opening of new network links and renewal of some existing network links) are implemented. The result of this exercise is presented in a map