Reliability and scalability of pedestrian monitoring practices: a systematic review

Effective pedestrian monitoring is crucial for promoting sustainable, safe, and livable urban environments, yet current practices lack a rigorous, evidence-based evaluation of their reliability, scalability, and contextual relevance. This systematic review offers the first foundational assessment of pedestrian monitoring practices, synthesizing academic literature to identify trends and expose critical knowledge gaps. A significant contribution is our novel qualitative framework, which synthesizes literature findings to classify monitoring methods into high (e.g., Bluetooth, IoT), medium (e.g., GPS, LiDAR), and low quality (e.g., surveys, video surveillance), based on their characteristics related to reliability and scalability. This synthesis reveals persistent challenges: the absence of standardized evaluation protocols, limited capacity to address complex urban environments, the underuse of widely available technologies, lack of long-term performance reporting, and unresolved tensions between data privacy and utility. To address these issues, the review outlines a strategic research agenda, including the establishment of benchmarking standards, the development of integrated, context-aware systems (supported by a proposed machine learning data driven framework), and investment in long-term and privacy-conscious approaches. The findings offer actionable insights for researchers, planners, and policymakers, supporting the design of walkable cities and more resilient, pedestrian-friendly urban environments.<p></p>