Video Analysis of Pedestrian Movement (VAPM) under Different Lighting Conditions—Method Exploration

When daylight hours are limited, pedestrians are dependent on appropriate outdoor lighting. Although new city lighting applications must consider both energy usage and pedestrian responses, current methods used to capture pedestrian walking behaviour during dark conditions in real settings are limited. This study reports on the development and evaluation of a video-based method that analyses pedestrians’ microscopic movements (VAPM—video analysis of pedestrian movements), including placement and speed, in an artificially lit outdoor environment. In a field study utilising between-subjects design, 62 pedestrians walked along the same path under two different lighting applications. VAPM accurately discriminated pedestrians’ microscopic movements in the two lighting applications. By incorporating methodological triangulation, VAPM successfully complemented observer-based assessments of pedestrians’ perceptions and evaluations of the two lighting applications. It is suggested that in evaluations of pedestrian responses to city lighting applications, observer-based assessments could be successfully combined with an analysis of actual pedestrian movement while walking in the lit environment. However, prior to employing a large-scale application of VAPM, the methodology needs to be further adapted for use with drones and integration into smart city lighting systems.