Yonghui Chen (MDes CC ’17) along with Longfeng Wu (DDes ’19) , Jung Hyun Woo (DDes ’19) , and Seung Kyum Kim (DDes ’19) won the Eris Development Center Student of the Year Award 2017. This annual award sponsored by Eris and administered by Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis, is open to all Harvard students.
Under the supervision of Prof. Andres Sevtsuk , Yonghui and the other three students used Central Station as a case to investigate how pedestrians chose routes around a subway station during the evening peak hour, and to find out what were the possible factors that affect the choices. An ArcGIS-based model was built to predict the pedestrian walking patterns, and it was then adjusted based on the field survey findings. The adjusted prediction model indicated that the pedestrians on the streets around Central Station during the evening peak hour were mainly the employees who worked within 1km walking distance from the station but lived remotely. The pedestrian route choices were mainly effected by the walking distance. And the pedestrians were more likely to walk directly to the station without too many detours, especially when the weather was terrible. Combing analytical tools in ArcGIS platform and field survey calibration approach, the research revealed the movement of people at neighborhood scale, based on which urban planners could efficiently implement people-orient designs and planning policies.
