Abstract
Empirical studies of the characteristics and behaviour of pedestrians are indispensable for establishing design criteria and methods in transport and town planning for major activity centres. International research is revealing numerous deficiencies in existing theories of planning. These deficiencies are partly due to inadequate knowledge of pedestrian behaviour and partly to vagueness in understanding of the consequences of failing to design properly for the pedestrian. Six principal deficiencies are distinguished in this paper. Each is illustrated by two examples. Some conclusions for future research are given in the last section.