Microscopic modeling of attention-based movement behaviors

For transportation hubs, leveraging pedestrian flows for commercial activities presents an effective strategy for funding maintenance and infrastructure improvements. However, this introduces new challenges, as consumer behaviors can disrupt pedestrian flow and efficiency. To optimize both retail potential and pedestrian efficiency, careful strategic planning in store layout and facility dimensions was done by expert judgement due to the complexity in pedestrian dynamics in the retail areas of transportation hubs. This paper introduces an attention-based movement model to simulate these dynamics. By simulating retail potential of an area through the duration of visual attention it receives, and pedestrian efficiency via speed loss in pedestrian walking behaviors, the study further explores how design features can influence the retail potential and pedestrian efficiency in a bi-directional corridor inside a transportation hub.