Pedestrian Comfort Guidance for London

A key part of the research into pedestrian comfort on footways was to investigate the real impact
of street furniture on peoples’ behaviour and the amount of space on the footway. Therefore the
buffers defined for each type of street furniture include the average “static activity” associated with
the furniture, that is, people waiting, queuing, talking, taking photographs etc.
If there is an unusual amount of static activity (e.g. because a bus stand is served by a large number
of services) or, because of the area, people are standing and waiting in areas they normally would
not (e.g. near guard rail in a tourist attraction or regional retail site), then an additional static survey is
recommended.
A number of factors should be taken into account when conducting a static activity survey for a
footway:
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Static Activity
How many locations and where? The initial site visit should have indicated locations where static
activity occurs at the site. Locations near street furniture and transport connections are the usual
locations. Samples should be taken within a 6m zone either side of your location.
Recording the location: An exact reference for the sample location(s) should always be recorded
on a map with a text description (e.g. stand in front of Halifax, facing WH Smith) and photograph
for future reference.
Performing the survey: The counts should be taken using the “snap shot” methodology whereby
the observer records with a “x” on a printed map all pedestrians who are standing still within
the survey location. This is like taking a photo of each section and the observer need only note
what was happening when they first stopped and looked. The images below show a bus stop in
Brixton and how a data collection book for the same scene is likely to look.
Sample length and hours of survey: This will depend on the purpose of the study but should
match the flow activity being collected. That is, once every half an hour if five minute samples are
being collected or twice every half hour if 10 minute samples are being collected.
Calculating the impact of static activity: Once the data has been collected the impact of the
static pedestrians can be considered by either inputting the standing locations recorded into GIS
using scaled people markers or if it is a simple queue that behaves consistently throughout the
day by using a standard body ellipse (0.6m wide, 0.45m depth) plus 0.5 buffer (0.2m beside the
wall or kerb and 0.3m between the static person and people walking by).
Figure 18 Brixton High Street looking South
Figure 19 How a static survey of Figure 18 may look
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