Visualising pedestrian flow using PGS tracking to improve inner city quality

Every environment has its own characteristics and people react individually to that structure; in an interactive, passive or avoiding way. This paper focuses on pedestrian movement in the city centre of Delft, the Netherlands. It is dedicated to find new and exciting ways of improving city centres for pedestrians by using a Global Positioning Systems (GPS) tracking system. The main role is to develop proposals based on evaluated visitor experiences and to observe the use of public space. This research is related to earlier studies of pedestrian behaviour like Pedestrian mobility and the regeneration of the European city centre. Street-level desires: Discovering the city on foot (Van der Hoeven et al., 2008) and Urbanism on track: Application of tracking technologies in urbanism (Van Schaick et al., 2008). It is directly linked with submitted papers from Stefan van der Spek and Ohyoon Kwon. The aim of this paper is to inventory, analyze and understand how the city centre of Delft is used by three different groups of pedestrians; city visitors most likely show different behaviour than neighbourhood residents and these will differ from city centre inhabitants. Questions like: "How do pedestrians use the city centre of Delft?", "What is the current quality of the public space and built environment in the city centre of Delft?"and "Which spatial design interventions can improve public space for pedestrians in order to retain city visitors in the city centre of Delft by using GPS tracking technology?" are answered by using methods like GPS tracking, questionnaires and trip diaries. Pedestrian movement will be visualized and mapped with regard to trips, duration and destination. Thereafter, the paper provides a spatial quality analysis of the inner city of Delft using photographs. The outcome of this paper contains the use of the city centre of Delft by three different groups of pedestrians. When these results are combined with the visual quality analysis, flaws and strengths in the urban fabric can be found. Certain areas and streets are used frequently while others are undesirable ignored. Consequently, street life can be improved by making spatial recommendations and strategic design interventions. The city centre of Delft will therefore become more attractive and more people will stay longer, have a good time and spend more money. City life will flourish.Urbanism and Building SciencesArchitectur