Abstract

Movement in dedicated pedestrian networks in urban environments is an important area for study in the field of urban planning. Researchers have investigated various related factors in path choice with regard to these settings. However, the preference of pedestrians for underground and surface routes in a multi-level urban system is still relatively unknown, making it difficult to model pedestrian dynamics in such complex spatial systems. The purpose of this thesis project is firstly to investigate the factors affecting pedestrian path choice in a multi-level urban environment and secondly, to propose an assignment model for pedestrian circulation in a multi-level system, with parameters from the first study. The results obtained from three operating tunnels in downtown Montreal show that seasonal change has an effect on pedestrian preference for path choices, suggesting that weather conditions are a major factor related to the use of underground routes. Although there is no statistically significant relationship between personal or systematic factors and preference for routes, the influence of systematic factors can be observed in the three cases. The assignment model is applied in a case study of Concordia tunnel system under construction. This study contributes to the investigation of factors affecting path choices, surface or underground routes, and proposes a new model to project pedestrian flow.