Understanding Walking Behaviour – Pedestrian Motion Patterns

and Preferences in Shopping Environments

Alexandra Milloniga,b and Katja Schechtnerb

a
Department of Geoinformation and Cartography, Vienna University of Technology,
Austria
b
Human Centered Mobility Technologies, arsenal research, Austria

Contact author:
Alexandra Millonig
Erzherzog-Johann-Platz 1, A-1040 Vienna, Austria
millonig@cartography.tuwien.ac.at; alexandra.millonig@arsenal.ac.at

Abstract

The promotion of walkable environments and the design of attractive places for
walkers require comprehensive knowledge about pedestrians’ needs and
preferences. However, so far little is known about the factors encouraging people to
walk in specific environments and prompting them to avoid others. As previous
studies have already indicated, the design and structure of the surrounding indoor or
outdoor environment is counted among the most crucial determining factors.
Especially in the field of marketing research a lot of effort is put on the identification of
relevant parameters affecting the spatial behaviour of shoppers. Some of these
results had a large impact on shopping centre architecture, e.g. the predicted
evolvement of shopping to an active leisure activity led to the creation of large
landmark shopping centres which offer specific thematic, interactive surroundings
(e.g. Canal City, Fukuoka, Japan). Turley and Millimen (2000) researched the
atmospheric effects on shopping behaviour and especially lighting concepts proved
to be of high relevance for movement behaviour in shopping streets.

A currently ongoing study is focussing at the investigation of pedestrian spatio-

temporal behaviour in indoor and outdoor shopping environments. A combination of
different qualitative-interpretative and quantitative-statistical empirical methods is
employed in order to obtain a comprehensive insight to human motion behaviour and
underlying intentions, motivations and individual preferences. Special attention is
paid on the investigation of potential differences of indoor and outdoor behaviour
patterns and related influence factors. We present initial results based on a data set
collected from 130 interviews of pedestrians in indoor and outdoor shopping
environments, who were asked to give a self-assessment of their walking behaviour,
preferred environmental attributes, and other walking-related characteristics. The
experimental results include identified key attributes, classes of homogeneous self-
perceptions, and a comparison of indoor and outdoor results.
Alexandra Millonig works as a project assistant at the Cartography Research Group
at the Vienna University of Technology, and is doing research at Human Centered
Mobility Technologies at arsenal research, Vienna, Austria. Her research interests
include the monitoring and interpretation of human spatio-temporal behaviour and the
development of mobile navigation services.

Katja Schechtner studied architecture and urban planning at the University of

Technology, Vienna, Austria and Columbia University, NYC, USA. She worked as
urban planner in The Netherlands, Ireland and as senior consultant in urban planning
and transport telematics in Japan. Since 2002 she is Head of Department of Human
Centered Mobility Technologies at arsenal research, Vienna.
Understanding Walking Behaviour – Pedestrian Motion Patterns
and Preferences in Shopping Environments

Alexandra Milloniga,b and Katja Schechtnerb

a
Department of Geoinformation and Cartography, Vienna University of Technology,
Austria
b
Human Centered Mobility Technologies, arsenal research, Austria

Introduction
The behaviour of walking individuals and especially the influence factors determining
route choice behaviour of pedestrians has aroused scientific interest from various
perspectives. Among the most relevant fields of interest are for example tourism
research, tracking people for security purposes, or monitoring evacuation behaviour;
other approaches aim at the investigation of pedestrian behaviour in order to develop
design elements of pedestrian facilities, planning guidelines, or navigation and
guiding systems (Helbing et al. 2001, Millonig and Schechtner 2007, O’Connor et al
2005). Most studies explore the particular behaviour of people acting within a specific
context situation, e.g. visitors of museums or exhibitions (Kanda et al. 2007,
Sparacino 2002), tourist behaviour (Hartmann 1988, Keul and Kühberger 1997,
O’Connor et al. 2005), or shopping environments (Koike et al. 2003, Kitazawa et al.
2003).

A lot of effort is spent in order to unveil the influence factors determining human
spatio-temporal behaviour. It is often assumed that individuals normally choose the
“optimal” path to reach a desired destination, and usually this is considered to be the
shortest path. However, many studies in monitoring pedestrian behaviour have
revealed differences in human navigational and route selection behaviour,
suggesting that there seem to be various other factors influencing navigational
decisions and walking patterns. Findings indicate that there are mainly two categories
of behaviour influencing factors: internal factors (personal characteristics of
individuals) and external factors (characteristics of the environment). Internal factors
comprise for example socio-demographic attributes (gender, age, health, etc.)
(Daamen and Hoogendoorn 2003), as well as culture, lifestyle, level of education,
beliefs, and attitudes (Holden 2000). External factors include characteristics of the
trip (familiarity, trip length), properties of the infrastructure (type, attractiveness,
shelter), and environmental characteristics (ambient conditions, weather) (Daamen
and Hoogendoorn 2003). External factors can also be classified to several
dimensions of route qualities, such as physical qualities (distance, acclivity),
emotional qualities (attractiveness, safety), and cognitive qualities (complexity,
landmarks) (Millonig and Gartner 2007).

In this contribution, we focus on the investigation of influence factors

determining the spatio-temporal behaviour of shoppers in two major shopping
areas in Vienna; one indoor area located in one of the city’s largest shopping
and entertainment complexes, and another area consisting of Vienna’s most
popular outdoor shopping street. We present results from 130 interviews
collected at both sites and investigate differences in the participants’ self-
assessments of walking preferences and individual characteristics in indoor
and outdoor shopping environments.

Layout concepts & Spatio-temporal behaviour

1943 the architecture journal “Architectural Forum” invited Victor Gruen – an Austrian
refugee in the US – and his wife, Elsie Krummbeck, to develop prototypes for a
“regional shopping centre”. The question then was the same as today: “How to
design shopping environments in a more attractive way?”; with the underlying
intention of increasing the amount of money spent by each individual shopper.

The major innovation of Gruen was the new layout concept, which influenced the
route decision process of pedestrians. Gruen created completely enclosed spaces
with climate control, artificial lighting and no reference to the external surroundings,
which led to spatial and time disorientation of the consumers – inducing them to stay
longer within the shopping centres and exploring more shops, than they had initially
intended to. The “Gruen transfer” describes the moment when consumer's decision-
making consciousness subsides and he looses himself in the shopping environment.
(Baldauf and Margreiter, 2006).

While most consumers name a functional organisation of shopping environments,

especially short routes, clear layouts with easy access to escalators and elevators
(Besemer, 2004) as a positive, attracting quality, architecture concepts which
circumvent the instinctive overview of the complete structure seem to be more
successful in creating the “Gruen transfer” and stimulating spending behaviour.

Successful retail architects, e.g. Rem Kohlhaas or Martin Kiekenap name the slightly
bent path that creates a constant urge to explore what is beyond the immediate view
field as one of the most successful layout concepts to prolong the time spent in
shopping environments.

The route concept of shopping centres/streets and the layout of shops have therefore
been in the artistic focus of architects and developers for over 60 years, but as Turley
and Milliman show, there is a lack of empirical research about layout variables and
their real effects on shoppers. In particular there is little empirically backed
knowledge about time spent in a shopping environment, queuing behaviour,
crowding perceptions and related sales.
Another unanswered question is how retail architects can use different atmospheric
qualities to attract different crowds – and whether this consumer segmentation (age,
gender, cultural background) has any effects on sales (Turley and Milliman, 2000).

In contrast to intended consumer segmentation there is a trend in Austrian shopping

mall design to mix consumers with different socio-economic background. As to the
effect of this intention there also exists little empirical evidence.

Moreover most empirical studies rely solely on customer interviews to research

success criteria for shopping centres (Buchinger, 2008) and little comparison
between the factors influencing the spatio-temporal behaviour of shopping centre
customers vs. shopping streets customers exist.
Current Study: Pedestrian Spatio-temporal Behaviour in Shopping
Environments
In a currently ongoing research project a typology of lifestyle-based pedestrian
mobility styles is developed, exploring the subject from different perspectives by the
use of various complementary empirical methods. The outcomes will disclose
coherences between walking patterns and related self-perceptions of walking
behaviour, which will form the basis for the development of personalised navigation
services and information services. The study comprises a multi-stage approach
employing a combination of qualitative-interpretative and quantitative-statistical
methods. In this contribution, results from one part of the first of two consecutive
phases of data collection and analysis are introduced.

Study Design
The overall study design comprises two stages of data collection: In the first phase,
which is a heuristic phase, unobtrusive observations and standardised interviews are
used to identify basic types of pedestrian spatio-temporal behaviour. For a detailed
description of the empirical set-up and initial findings resulting from the analysis of
observation data in the heuristic phase of the study see Millonig and Gartner (2008a).
In the presently ongoing deductive phase of the study, localisation technologies for
tracking spatio-temporal motion patterns and interview techniques are combined in
order to define a comprehensive pedestrian typology. Results of both phases are
subsequently compared and collated to develop a model of pedestrian mobility
styles.

In this paper the results of the analysis of brief interviews conducted during the first
phase of data collection are presented. Participants were asked to give a self-
assessment of their individual walking preferences. The analysis aimed at the
exploration of the question if reported individual preferences result in dissimilar
behaviour patterns in the two different study areas. Moreover, key attributes
influencing specific patterns were to be identified in order to specify empirical
methods used in the following phase of the study, and detected classes of reported
behaviour were compared with classes of motion behaviour identified through
unobtrusive observation (see Millonig and Gartner 2008b).

Data Collection
The investigation areas included two shopping environments in Vienna (see figure 1).
The outdoor investigations took place on the city’s largest and one of the most
popular shopping miles, the Mariahilfer Straße, which is approximately 2 km long and
situated between the centre of the city and a major railway station west of the centre.
Several underground stations are located along the street. The streetscape dates
back to the Gründerzeit period (late 19th century onwards) and all major department
stores can be found there along with numerous smaller shops, cafes, and
restaurants.
The indoor survey was conducted at the “Donauzentrum”, which belongs to Vienna's
largest shopping and entertainment centres. It was built in 1975 and expanded
several times; today it comprises more than 200 shops and service centres, a food
court and several entertainment and leisure providers. The centre is located 6 km
north-east of the inner city of Vienna directly next to an underground station and in
the vicinity of major road junctions.
 Donauzentrum

City centre

Mariahilfer Straße

Figure 1: The two investigation areas and their position in relation to the city centre
(map: Stadt Wien – ViennaGIS).

During two days at each of both investigation areas, passing pedestrians were asked
to give a brief, standardised face-to-face interview. The shopping context was chosen
in order to minimise the risk of identifying classes of behaviour determined mainly by
different context situations, as it was assumed that the majority of people would come
there for shopping.

The questionnaire consisted of questions concerning socio-demographic attributes

(age, gender, education, profession, etc.), goals and time budget for the current
activities, frequency of visits, and questions referring to individual walking habits,
where participants were asked to give a self-assessment of their preferences
concerning walking behaviour and walking environments (e.g. rather “slow” or “fast”,
rather “exploring” or “goal-oriented”, rather “bustling environments” or “calm
environments”). The self-assessment profile contained 17 pairs of opposed attributes.
The structure of the questionnaire was kept as brief as possible in order to achieve a
large attendance of participants and to encourage the participation of shoppers who
act within certain time constraints.

Results
In total, 130 interviews have been conducted: 100 interviews have been given by
people visiting the indoor shopping mall, 30 interviews have been collected in the
outdoor shopping street, as pedestrians there were conspicuously less willing to give
an interview.
Sample

The majority of the participants are female (61.5%); the average age is around 36
years. Table 1 shows the distribution of age and gender within the overall sample.

Table 1: Age and gender distribution

Gender
female male Total
Age groups below 30 Count 38 24 62
% within Age groups 61.3% 38.7% 100.0%
% within Gender 47.5% 48.0% 47.7%
% of Total 29.2% 18.5% 47.7%
30 to 60 Count 30 18 48
% within Age groups 62.5% 37.5% 100.0%
% within Gender 37.5% 36.0% 36.9%
% of Total 23.1% 13.8% 36.9%
above 60 Count 12 8 20
% within Age groups 60.0% 40.0% 100.0%
% within Gender 15.0% 16.0% 15.4%
% of Total 9.2% 6.2% 15.4%
Total Count 80 50 130
% within Age groups 61.5% 38.5% 100.0%
% within Gender 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
% of Total 61.5% 38.5% 100.0%

The distribution of gender within the indoor and the outdoor sample are hardly
differing from the overall sample, and the age distribution is also comparable. Slight
differences appear when regarding the distribution of gender within the age groups:
The outdoor sample contains a higher amount of females aged between 30 and 60
and a lower amount of males aged above 60 than the overall sample or the indoor
sample. Generally, the sample at the shopping street contains slightly more males
than females, and participants there are a little younger on average than in the
shopping centre.

The analysis of educational levels suggests that the outdoor shopping street
apparently attracts shoppers with a higher level of education. This may be caused by
the fact that the shopping centre is situated in a residential area with predominantly
low and middle income population, whereas the shopping street traverses an area
inhabited by residents belonging to a more educated class and a comparatively high
amount of students. However, the sample is not representative and reliable
statements concerning the visitors’ composition at both survey sites cannot be made.

Analysis of Self-Reported Subjective Behaviour Preferences

The self-assessment profile for each participant was gathered by asking individuals
to estimate their preference concerning specific attributes presented in the
questionnaire. In total, 17 pairs of opposed attributes concerning walking habits,
environmental preferences, personal attitudes and shopping behaviour have been
included. For each pair of attributes, a ten-tiered scale was presented between the
two opposite expressions and participants had to express their preference by
marking one of the ten boxes. No middle category was offered in order to force
participants to express at least minimal tendencies; if no preference could be stated,
the individual had the possibility to leave the question concerning this particular item
unanswered.

Although some of the items had very similar meanings (e.g. “fast – slow” and “swift –
unhasty”), the analysis showed only little correlation (although on a high statistical
significance level). This confirms the assumption that pedestrians hardly possess
knowledge concerning their own behaviour and report what they believe to prefer (or,
in some cases, what they expect to be typical or socially desired behaviour).

After reducing the total amount of variables from 17 to 9 factors by the use of data
reduction processes, clustering algorithms (hierarchical clustering, k-means
clustering) have been used in order to identify classes of homogeneous profiles in
both investigation areas. In each area, the clustering process resulted in four classes
of reported behaviour preferences. In general, the reported behaviour preferences for
each cluster differ only marginally from each other. Table 2 and 3 present the results
from the clustering of all datasets collected in the indoor and outdoor investigation
areas. The composition of each class concerning socio-demographic characteristics
is shown, and determinative factors identified in the self-assessment profiles are
described.

Table 2: Indoor clusters

Cluster 1 2 3 4
No. of subjects 22 18 28 30
Gender:
female
male

Age: < 30
30 - 60
> 60
Average age 33.7 38.1 40.0 33.5
Level of education:
compulsory school
grammar school
higher education
other
Self-assessment of following own curious, hardly curious, self- fast, curious,
walking behaviour way, hardly anxious, weak determined, fast, modern, self-
(preferences) anxious, little orientation skills own way, hardly determined,
curiosity anxious, strong strong orientation
orientation skills skills
 Table 3: Outdoor clusters

Cluster 1 2 3 4
No. of subjects 5 6 5 13
Gender:
female
male

Age: < 30
30 - 60
> 60
Average age 30.4 27.0 42.0 37.2
Level of education:
compulsory school
grammar school
higher education
other
Self-assessment of weak orientation not anxious, not curious, own strong orientation
walking behaviour skills, own way, short distances, way, urban and skills, not an-
(preferences) self-determined, swift, curious, busy environ- xious, curious,
modern, fun- modern, own ments, flexible, long distances,
oriented way, planning not anxious, long slow, flexible,
distances, com- price-conscious,
plexity, strong simplicity
orientation skills,
quality-conscious

Two of the datasets of the indoor area and one of the datasets of the outdoor area
did not show ample similarities with other datasets and could not be included in any
of the clusters. Those three individuals predominantly selected extreme values in
their self-assessment profiles (either 1 or 10), whereas all other participants tended to
choose less distinctive categories (in most cases values between 2 to 5, or 6 to 9,
respectively).

Remarkably, the analyses of the datasets collected indoor and outdoor resulted in
four clusters each. The comparison of indoor and outdoor results shows slight
resemblances between individual clusters:
• Indoor cluster 1 and outdoor cluster 3 both have a rather balanced distribution
of females and males with slightly more male participants, predominantly aged
30 to 60, and a large amount of grammar school degrees as highest level of
education. They appear to be quite self-conscious and flexible but goal
oriented.
• Indoor cluster 4 and outdoor cluster 2 both contain a large amount of young,
highly educated individuals, who state to be very swift, curious, modern,
planning, and self-determined.
• Indoor cluster 3 and outdoor cluster 4 show certain similarities, as both of
them contain more females than males, a comparable distribution of age
groups and levels of education. The main difference in their behaviour
preferences lies in the favoured walking speed (fast vs. slow).
 • Indoor cluster 2 and outdoor cluster 1 are predominantly (or entirely) formed
by female participants, curious and fun-oriented, who believe to have weak
orientation skills.

Most determining factors in the behaviour profiles are related to personal

characteristics (e.g. curiosity, anxiety, and self-determination); motion-related
characteristics and environmental characteristics appear to be less important.

Discussion
The similarities and differences identified in the clusters are quite small, and hence
conclusions are limited. The limited importance of environmental factors is quite
surprising; potentially the brief structure and the short duration of the questionnaire
were not sufficient to unveil all underlying tendencies. Nisbett and Wilson (1977)
state that human behaviour is never fully determined by verbalised structures. This is
apparently especially true for spatio-temporal behaviour, as walking and route choice
processes are highly automated and humans are hardly fully aware of the factors
influencing their decisions.

Security and orientation appear to belong to the most important attributes. Both
factors are strongly dependable on environmental design, built structure and lighting.
Although many participants claim to be “hardly” or “not anxious”, and state to possess
“strong orientation skills”, the importance of these factors becomes apparent by the
decisiveness of the results. Moreover, in this respect the most explicit differences
between male and female participants could be identified: Individuals in clusters
dominated by women and/or elder participants tended to report weak orientation
skills and a higher level of fear, whereas individuals belonging to clusters containing
a large amount of male participants generally state to have strong orientation skills
and feel little or no anxiety.

However, the short amount of time given for the brief interviews failed to deliver clear
results concerning architectural features determining the spatio-temporal behaviour
of shoppers. More detailed interviews have to be conducted to unveil these
determinants and should contain specific questions about preferences concerning
environmental qualities.

The currently ongoing following phase of the presented project combines monitoring
techniques with detailed interviews containing questions related to individual
attitudes, lifestyle-related characteristics, and route quality preferences. The results
will include a validation of motion data analysis with the help of interview responses
and the identification of distortions in the reported self-assessment of spatial
behaviour.

Conclusion
Environmental factors such as design, atmosphere, or structure possess high
relevance in determining human spatial behaviour. The investigation of influence
factors and their composition is vital for defining attractive and walkable
environments. Interviews offer the only chance to gain insight to intentions, motives,
and other determinants influencing human spatial behaviour. However, humans
seldom reflect on the reasons shaping their decisions; hence, it is difficult to unveil
and evaluate key influence factors.

A survey employing brief standardised interviews conducted with 130 pedestrians in

and indoor and an outdoor shopping environment showed that participants mainly
assessed personal characteristics to determine their spatial behaviour.
Environmental attributes play a less significant role in the participants’ perception.
Still, important personal determinants like “anxiety” or “orientation skills” are strongly
dependant on environmental structures: Security coheres with open, lighted areas,
and orientation is related to clear, easily readable structures.

Humans appear not to be fully aware of environmental determinants underlying their

route decision processes, although several findings suggest that atmosphere,
structure, and design are of vital importance for the well-being of pedestrians. In an
currently ongoing consecutive phase of the presented study detailed interviews will
therefore be held with pedestrians visiting indoor and outdoor shopping areas,
focusing on environmental characteristics and qualities as well as lifestyle-related
factors influencing human spatio-temporal behaviour.

Acknowledgments
This work is part of the “UCPNavi” project, a cooperation project between the Vienna
University of Technology and arsenal research, Vienna. The project is supported by
the Austrian Funds for Scientific Research (FWF). The map used in Figure 1 has
been provided by Stadt Wien – ViennaGIS (www.wien.gv.at/viennagis/). The authors
would especially like to thank all pedestrians who agreed to participate in this survey.

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