Pedestrian Trajectory Dataset of Public European Squares

Journal Article (2026)
Author(s)

Nils Wolff (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Student TU Delft)

Layne Perry (Wageningen University & Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Titus Venverloo (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS))

Geertje Slingerland (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)

Jessica Wreyford (Wageningen University & Research)

Paolo Santi (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Fábio Duarte (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Research Group
Urban Studies
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06686-6 Final published version
More Info
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Publication Year
2026
Language
English
Research Group
Urban Studies
Journal title
Scientific Data
Issue number
1
Volume number
13
Article number
402
Downloads counter
22
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Abstract

Pedestrian trajectories are used to learn about human behavior in public space and the impact of spatial features on pedestrian flows. Currently, these trajectories are collected manually, with self-tracking devices, or with video cameras. Even when trajectories are obtained using computational techniques, such as using computer vision to trace them in space, these datasets are not made available for reproducibility or comparative studies between different locations. To close this gap, this paper makes available the data of pedestrian trajectories collected in 39 European squares. Firstly, we summarize the data collection process which was based on collecting footage from publicly available webcams. Secondly, we describe the process of trajectory extraction entailing object detection, tracking, and georeferencing. Lastly, we describe the data cleaning and validation steps that lead to the final dataset. The dataset ultimately includes 348,300 pedestrian trajectories extracted from 193 hours of video footage, collected at different times of the day, during working days and weekends, and during the Spring and Summer season.