Exploring the social life of urban spaces through AI.

IF 9.4 1区综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Pub Date : 2025-07-24 DOI:10.1073/pnas.2424662122

Arianna Salazar-Miranda,Zhuangyuan Fan,Michael Baick,Keith N Hampton,Fabio Duarte,Becky P Y Loo,Edward Glaeser,Carlo Ratti

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

We analyze changes in pedestrian behavior over a 30-y period in four urban public spaces located in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Building on William Whyte's observational work, which involved manual video analysis of pedestrian behaviors, we employ computer vision and deep learning techniques to examine video footage from 1979-80 and 2008-10. Our analysis measures changes in walking speed, lingering behavior, group sizes, and group formation. We find that the average walking speed has increased by 15%, while the time spent lingering in these spaces has halved across all locations. Although the percentage of pedestrians walking alone remained relatively stable (from 67% to 68%), the frequency of group encounters declined, indicating fewer interactions in public spaces. This shift suggests that urban residents are using streets as thoroughfares rather than as social spaces, which has important implications for the role of public spaces in fostering social engagement.

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通过人工智能探索城市空间的社会生活。

我们分析了纽约、波士顿和费城四个城市公共空间30年来行人行为的变化。在威廉·怀特（William Whyte）的观察工作的基础上，我们使用计算机视觉和深度学习技术来检查1979- 1980年和2008- 2010年的视频片段。我们的分析测量了行走速度、逗留行为、群体规模和群体形成的变化。我们发现，平均步行速度提高了15%，而在这些空间逗留的时间在所有地点都减少了一半。尽管独自行走的行人比例保持相对稳定（从67%到68%），但群体相遇的频率下降了，这表明在公共空间的互动减少了。这种转变表明，城市居民正在将街道用作通道，而不是社交空间，这对公共空间在促进社会参与方面的作用具有重要意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 综合性期刊-综合性期刊

CiteScore

19.00

自引率

0.90%

发文量

3575

审稿时长

2.5 months

期刊介绍： The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer-reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), serves as an authoritative source for high-impact, original research across the biological, physical, and social sciences. With a global scope, the journal welcomes submissions from researchers worldwide, making it an inclusive platform for advancing scientific knowledge.