Measurement and analysis of neighborhood congestion: Evidence from sidewalk pedestrian traffic and walking speeds.

Regional scientists and planners are interested in congestion, both vehicular and pedestrian. This paper examines pedestrian congestion on sidewalks in the tourism district of Bar Harbor, Maine, with a focus on the effects of cruise passengers. The analysis considers pedestrian counts and the effects of passengers on walking speeds. Cruise passengers increase sidewalk pedestrian traffic overall, but the effects on walking speeds are mixed. For both indicators of sidewalk congestion, cruise passenger impacts decrease at greater distances from the passenger point‐of‐entry into Bar Harbor. The methods presented in the paper can be applied to sidewalk congestion related to a wide range of facilities and events (e.g., transportation hubs, museums and concert halls, sporting events, large pilgrimage events). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]