Agent-based Models in Supporting Pedestrian Transportation Planning and Design

Abstract

Agent-based models offer a new approach to understanding human-urban interactions in trans portation systems, allowing individual entities within a system to be characterized with cognitive and behavioral properties. This paper discussed the role of agent-based representations of pedestrian transportation systems, detailing the underlying assumptions and techniques behind different types of pedestrian models and illustrating the differences between aggregate and individual agent representations. It then turns attention to the case study and the development of a cognitive pe destrian model as a way to illustrate the spectrum of potential spatial behaviors that are enabled by material changes to the transportation network. The paper concludes with a discussion and specific frameworks for employing agent-based models to support transportation planning decisions. Cities across the country are struggling with how to best address a network of street infrastructure that in many ways opposes shifting views of public health, urban transportation, and environmental sustainability. Many scholars advocate for a “complete street” design that enables safe access for all modes of transportation, maintain-ing that inclusive changes to street infrastructure can address the spatial mismatches in contem-porary cities, while increasing the public safety and walkability of neighborhoods al. Schlossberg The design of walkable neighborhoods and pedestrian-oriented spaces are often portrayed as simple, solution-based approaches to redevelopment that can address myriad structural and social issues in the city 2012), and scholars emphasize deeper engagements between street infrastructure and human-scale pedestrian behaviors can form a strong theoretical foundation for more sustainable urban practices 2006). As the public becomes increasingly aware of walkability as a measure of urban health, scholars and practitioners are beginning to focus more attention on both the structural elements of pedestri-an-oriented design as well as the human experiences in practices of walking.