Evidence-based design: Satellite positioning studies of city centre user groups

In an era of increasing competition between urban cores, positive pedestrian experiences become crucial in attracting visitors and retaining residents. The dichotomy between use and evaluation of public spaces enables the prioritisation of urban design and management interventions in an age of austerity. When spaces are highly used but evaluated as poor, they warrant improvements over other spaces. The results therefore substantiate evidence-based design that achieves significant yet cost-effective improvements of the city centre pedestrian experience. This paper presents an approach to understanding city centre pedestrian behaviour and experiences by deploying global positioning system tracking technology. This technology enables accurate measurement of routing and behaviour in public space. Differences between the use of public spaces in the city centre of Delft by visitors and residents are measured by tracking the behaviour of three user groups. This measured behaviour is supplemented by questionnaire results to understand the evaluation of public spaces in central Delft.