City centre footfall and pedestrian flows

City centre footfall monitoring counts visitors, pedestrian flows and dwell time on the streets and squares of a centre. Street-level Wi-Fi and cellular network data do the measuring, and the results are anonymous statistics a public body can rely on. Bumbee Labs is the company behind the only footfall method in Europe approved by a data protection authority.

The short version

• City centre footfall is measured as visitor counts, flows between streets and dwell time, anonymously and without cameras.
• Wi-Fi at the main corners and hot spots does the street-level counting, so the whole centre does not need covering.
• Cellular network data adds the wider catchment beyond the centre.
• One series answers the questions below, from the main street to a pedestrianised stretch.

Which questions can city centre footfall data answer?

A centre has to balance commerce, culture, safety and public welfare while competing with suburbs, malls and e-commerce. One measured series serves planners and architects, traffic and parking authorities, transport operators, event organisers, property owners, retailers, and police and security.

Which street is really our main street?

Count every candidate street in the city centre the same way and compare footfall by hour and season. The street with the most visitors is the main street, whatever the map or the rent level says. In Västerås the assumed main street was not the busiest: see Västerås Measures Its City Centre. Heatmaps of the centre’s streets show the ranking and the routes between them.

Is the centre heading up or down, before the shops close?

Vacancy rates and business rates show a decline late. Visitor counts per street, measured the same way week after week, show it earlier, because a street that loses visitors before it loses tenants gives the city centre time to respond. Read the footfall / visitor count against dwell time: the same count with falling dwell means people pass through.

The trend holds up only when the series is long and measured the same way every year. Footfall is a leading indicator of how a high street is doing.

Did the festival lift the whole centre, or only one evening?

Compare the festival with the city centre’s own baseline: visitor counts in the event zone and on the streets around it, before, during and after. If the surrounding streets keep their usual level, the festival filled the square for an evening. If they rise, it lifted the wider centre. Cellular (4G/5G) data shows where the extra visitors came from.

Measure event impact covers the method.

Where do people gather late in the evening, and which places stay empty?

Visitor counts and dwell time per zone and hour show crowding and empty zones in a city centre. The evening and night figures show which squares fill, which streets stay empty and when, so the municipality, property owners and police can plan security and public space around where people are.

Pedestrian street or not: what happens to flow and trade?

Count the street before the change and keep counting after it, stretch by stretch, so city centre footfall is compared with the same measurement on both sides of the change. Wi-Fi people counting at each stretch shows which parts of the pedestrian street draw visitors and how flows vary over the week and the seasons.

A pedestrianisation can then be followed up year by year; the insight on pedestrian streets and property prices goes further.

What is the one number the city, property owners, retailers and the police can agree on?

One method applied the same way to every street gives the city, property owners, retailers and police the same city centre footfall figure to plan on. Each stakeholder group gets its own dashboard on the Explore portal, and the People counting API delivers the same numbers into the city’s BI.

With Bumbee Labs the visitor data is yours, delivered as anonymous statistics; the procurement guide explains who should own it.

What else do city centres ask their footfall data?

• Where do our visitors come from? Cellular network data adds the wider catchment to the street-level counts, at district scale, so you can see where visitors come from.
• What is normal for our centre on a rainy Saturday in November? A baseline from your own series, split by weekday, season and weather, shows whether a dip is a real change or just weather; see weather and footfall.
• How do we compare with other cities and national indices? A series measured the same way every year gives comparable figures across periods and between centres; benchmarking footfall explains what makes a comparison credible.
• What is a location in the centre worth in rent and property value? Visitor counts per street put a number on the location, for property valuations and rent negotiations alike; see footfall data for lease negotiations.
• A new mall or retail park outside town: what happens to the centre? Measure the centre’s visitors before the opening to have a baseline, then compare the same streets after it.
• The street is dug up for two years: how much does trade lose, and when do people come back? Count the stretch before the works begin, then during and after, to see how far visitor numbers fall, where, and whether the flow returns.
• How do we show new chains, restaurateurs and hotels that the centre has the customers? Measured visitors per street and hour, and where they come from, are the figures to put in front of them.
• Can the flows go straight into our map, BI and digital twin? The metrics pass through an open API into the systems you already run, city BI included.
• Can we publish the figures for residents and press? The results are anonymous, aggregated statistics, and the dashboards come with exportable graphics for press and the public.

How is pedestrian counting done across a whole city centre?

Councils, BIDs and urban planners work with pedestrian counting: how many people walk a given street, in which direction and at which hour. Bumbee Labs counts pedestrians across the main routes and squares, anonymously and without cameras. Adding cellular (4G/5G) data extends the picture to the wider catchment beyond the centre. Public bodies get a base for infrastructure investment, safety decisions and economic development reports, and up-to-date smart city visitor data for planning infrastructure, events and transport.