The Pace of Life - Reanalysed: Why Does Walking Speed of Pedestrians Correlate with City

Size?
Author(s): Peter Wirtz and Gregor Ries
Source: Behaviour, Vol. 123, No. 1/2 (Nov., 1992), pp. 77-83
Published by: BRILL
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Behaviour
123 (1-2) 1992, E. J. Brill, Leiden

THE PACE OF LIFE - REANALYSED: WHY DOES WALKING

SPEED OF PEDESTRIANS CORRELATE WITH CITY SIZE?
by

PETER WIRTZ') and GREGOR RIES2)

(Institut fur Biologic der Universitat Freiburg and Forschungsstelle
fur Humanethologie in der Max Planck Gesellschaft)1
(With 3 Figures)
(Acc. 29-X-1992)

Summary
In a much quoted study, BORNSTEIN
& BORNSTEIN
(1976) showed that the walking speed of
pedestrians is positively correlated with the size of the city. They interpreted the higher
walking speed of people in larger cities as a psychological response to stimulatory overload.
We also found a positive correlation between walking speed and city size. In addition, we
showed that - at least in our sample - larger cities had higher proportions of young males
and lower proportions of people older than 60 years. Walking speed and momentary
density did not correlate positively.
Because walking speed is age- and sex-dependent (Fig. 2), differences in population
structure are likely to cause differences in average walking speed. The average walking
speed predicted for each city according to its age- and sex-composition correlated positively
with city size. The regressions of observed walking speed on population size and of walking
speed predicted from age structure on population size did no differ significantly in their
slopes (p > 0.95). It therefore seems unnecessary to invoke other factors in addition to age
composition to explain differences in average walking speeds of pedestrians.

Introduction
With the catching titel "The pace of life" BORNSTEIN
& BORNSTEIN
(1976)

published the results of a much quoted study showing that the walking
speed of pedestrians is positively correlated with the size of the city. The
measurements of the walking speed of, on average, 20 people per city
were taken on the main roads of 15 towns or cities in the USA, Ireland,
Germany, Israel, Greece and Czechoslowakia,ranging in size from 365 to
2.6 million inhabitants. Later, BORNSTEIN(1979) published additional
1) Address for correspondence: Dr. P. WIRTZ,Universidade da Madeira, Largo do Colegio,
P-9000 Funchal, Portugal, Madeira.
2) Many thanks for helpful discussions to colleagues at the Forschungsstelle fur Humanethologie der Max Planck Gesellschaft and in the Wickler department of the Max Planck
Institut fur Verhaltensphysiologie.

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78

WIRTZ& RIES

measurements from six further cities, confirming the initial result. The
interpreted the higher walking speed of
psychologists M. & H. BORNSTEIN
in
cities
as
a
response to stimulatory overload: "increased
people
larger
walking speeds serve to minimize environmental stimulation".
In our study, which measured the walking speeds of people at 14
different places in Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy, we also found
a positive correlation between walking speed of pedestrians and city size.
In addition, we attempted to find the proximate reason that directly
determines walking speed and apparently somehow correlates with city
size.
Material and methods
& BORNSTEIN
Following the procedure described by BORNSTEIN
(1976) we measured the
walking speed (the time taken to cover a distance of 15 to 20 m) of 123 to 1258 pedestrians
on the main shopping roads of 14 cities varying in population size from 5200 to more than 2
million (Table 1). As the measurements were taken between November and April, temperatures were lower than in BORNSTEIN'S
study (between 0 and 10C versus 24C). To avoid
observer bias, the first single unobstructed person entering the measuring strip was chosen
as a subject in every case.
In addition, we noted the follwing variables:
- number of people walking in the opposite direction and passing the observed subject
while that person was crossing the measurement strip,

TABLE 1. Population size, sample size, walking speed and sample

composition towns and cities
place

Berlin
Hannover
Karlsruhe
Freiburg
Basel
Varese
Colmar
Lahr
Emmendingen
Waldkirch

population

N subjects

%20-30males

%>60

VD

2157695
505875
268309
185669
175000
89146
66694
34566
23653
18879

1033
985
291
1258
904
253
326
293
502
489

1.36
1.46
1.46
1.39
1.44
1.36
1.35
1.40
1.41
1.35

8.02
24.99
25.78
12.71
9.49
10.68
8.88
12.28
7.76
4.70

23.15
6.22
14.10
16.89
14.95
9.90
17.78
12.60
17.73
22.53

1.37
1.44
1.43
1.40
1.39
1.41
1.40
1.42
1.39
1.37

Bad Krozingen

12084

275

1.33

1.10

40.37

1.32

Breisach
Laveno
PonteTresa

10021
8830
5200

274
123
253

1.48
1.28
1.22

5.73
5.68
4.32

23.00
28.47
29.66

1.38
1.36
1.37

V = average walkingspeed of pedestrians(ms-1)%20-30 males = percent 20-30 year old males in the
population;%>60= percentof people olderthan 60 yearsin the population;VD = walkingspeedpredicted
from age- and sex-composition.

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79

THE PACE OF LIFE - REANALYSED

- number of people on the measurement strip immediately after the subject had left it,
- sex of the subject,
- estimated age of the subject in the classes 15-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, older than
60 years (persons estimated to be younger than 15 years were not counted).

Results
Walking speed and city size.
Average walking speed (V) correlated positively with the logarithmic
value of city size (logpop), following the equation
V = 0.043 x logpop + 1.169
=
(r 0.461, p < 0.05, one-tailed).
Figure 1 shows the relation between walking speed and city size for all
(BORNSTEIN& BORNSTEIN, 1976;

data are available

36 cities for which

1979, this study, plus a value for the German city Offenburg
BORNSTEIN,
1.8-

1.6 14

E
E

.'

IC

1.4- V0

1.2-_
-

1.0
1.0 --

0.80.6 -

100

1000

10000

100000
population size

1000000

Fig. 1. The relation between average walking speed of pedestrians and city size.

based on the walking speed of 1232 pedestrians measured by S. KoPKA

during a student's practical: V = 1.52 m/s, logpop = 4.7).
The equation for the total sample is
V = 0.19 x logpop + 0.42
(r = 0.76, p < 0.0001, two-tailed).
Walking speed and momentary density of people.
For the city of Freiburg (the place with the highest sample size), we
correlated the walking speed of pedestrians with two measures of momen-

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WIRTZ & RIES

80

tary density, namely "number of people walking in the opposite direction

and passing the observed subject while that person crossed the measurement strip" and "number of people on the measurement strip immediately after the subject had left it"; we also correlated walking speed with
the logarithmic values of these two measures. The walking speed of
neither male nor female subjects correlated with these variables; the
resulting eight correlation coefficients ranged between -0.003 and -0.19,
none of them approachig significance level.
Walking speed and age or sex of subject.
It is, of course, well known that males tend to walk faster than females and
that older people tend to walk slower than younger people (references in
WALMSLEY
& LEWIS,1989). Higher walking speed of males is due to larger
stride length and not to higher stride frequency (S. KOPKA& C. KRAMER,
unpublished students' report). The average walking speed of males and
females of each age class was calculated separately for every city. The
mean of these means gives a walking speed typical for each age- and sexclass and independent of city size.
The relation between walking speed and age or sex is shown in Fig. 2.
City size and population

composition.

Because walking speed was found to be age- and sex-dependent, we tested

whether cities of different sizes differed in their population composition.
In our sample, population composition covaried with city size in a systematic way: larger cities tended to have higher proportions of 20 to 30 yearold males, i.e. higher proportions of the fastest walking class (r = 0.62, p &lt;
0.02, two-tailed) and larger cities tended to have lower proportions of
people older than 60 years, i.e. lower proportions of the two slowest
walking classes (r = -0.56, p = 0.03, two-tailed): Table 1.
Walking speed and population

composition.

Because larger cities have higher proportions of people that walk fast and
lower proportions of people that walk slowly, differences in age- and sexcomposition could perhaps already explain the faster walking speeds
observed in larger cities. Using the data on age and sex of the people
measured in each city, and using the average age- and sex-specific walking speeds calculated previously, a "demographic walking speed" VD was
calculated; this is the average walking speed predicted for each city

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81

THE PACE OF LIFE - REANALYSED

1.6

1.5_

male

* female

1.4 U

1.3-

'o

1.21.1-

<20

-30

-40

-50

-60

>60

age (years)
Fig. 2. Averagewalkingspeed of men and women of differentage classes.
* observed

1.5 -

o expected
@0

_
Q.
'

, lo

__

obs.
exp.

1.3100

100

1000

10000
100000 1000000
population size

Fig. 3. Walkingspeed observedand predictedfrom age- and sex-composition.

according to its age- and sex-composition and independent of its size

(Table 1). Demographic walking speed was positively correlated with
population size, indicating that differences in the age and sex composition
of the cities do already explain higher walkings speed in larger cities. The
regression equation was
(r = 0.502,

VD = 0.02 x logpop
=
0.07, two-tailed).
p

+ 1.29

The unexpectedly low walking speed at the city of Berlin apparently is

caused by an atypically high proportion of older people and an atypically
low proportion of younger people (see Table 1).
Observed walking speed V and demographic walking speed VD were
positively correlated with r = 0.572 and p = 0.032, two-tailed. The partial

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82

WIRTZ & RIES

correlation coefficient between city size and observed walking speed was
0.346 (p > 0.10, two-tailed), i.e. considerably smaller than the partial
correlation coefficient of 0.579 (p &lt;
0.05, two-tailed) between demoand
observed
walking speed.
graphic walking speed
Figure 3 compares the walking speeds measured in the 14 cities and the
"demographic walking speeds" calculated for these places. The slopes of
the two regression lines were compared by analysis of covariance. They
do not differ significantly (p > 0.95).
Discussion
BORNSTEIN & BORNSTEIN (1976) measured

the walking speeds of, on aver-

age, only 20 people per city. Even had they thought of it, they would have
been unable to test for the influence of the age composition of the
population on walking speed in their data. We have shown that - in our
data set, at least - the populations sampled in different cities did not have
the same age structure. Apparently, systematic differerences in the age
structure of the 14 cities observed by us already explain higher walking
speed in larger cities.
The variance in measured walking speed is much greater than that in
demographic walking speed. Clearly, other factors than age and sex
influence walking speed. In the towns of Varese, Colmar, Laveno, and
Ponte Tresa walking speed was much lower than that predicted from
population composition. A more leasure life style in "Latin" towns than
in German ones is one of several speculations one might put foreward as a
possible reason. Another factor whose influence would have to be considered in future studies is body size: in the northern hemisphere, southern
populations of Homo sapiens tend to be smaller than northern ones and
therefore probably have shorter stride lengths. In the study by BORNSTEIN
& BORNSTEIN
(1976), small towns were predominantly from southern
areas and large cities predominantly from northern areas - the possible
reason for a much larger regression coefficient in the equation found by
BORNSTEIN& BORNSTEIN(1976).

In addition to differences in age structure, sex composition, and average body size, psychological phenomena such as the one envisioned by
BORNSTEIN & BORNSTEIN (1976) could influence

the average walking speed

of pedestrians. The observation that there was no positive correlation

between walking speed and momentary density (if any, the trend was a
negative correlation) argues against the particular explanation offered by
BORNSTEIN & BORNSTEIN. If increased

walking

speed served

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to reduce

THE PACE OF LIFE - REANALYSED

83

stimulatory overload we would expect higher walking speeds at higher

densities.
The regression of observed walking speed on population size and the
regression of walking speed predicted from age and sex composition on
population size resulted in two slightly different lines (Fig. 3). The slope of
the curve with the observed walking speed is the steeper of the two,
indicating that there might be an additional factor correlating positively
with population size. The statistical comparison of the two lines, however,
showed that there is a 97% probability of the difference between the lines
being a chance product. At present, it therefore seems unnecessary to
invoke additional factors other than age composition to explain the
differences in average walking speeds of pedestrians.
References
M. H. (1979). The pace of life: revisited. - Int. J. Psychol. 14, p. 83-90.
BORNSTEIN,
H. G. (1976). The pace of life. - Nature 259, p. 557-559.
-& BORNSTEIN,
WALMSLEY,
D.J. & LEWIS,G.J. (1989). The pace of pedestrian flows in cities. - Environment and Behaviour 21, p. 123-150.

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