...
By Lucy Notarantonio
Senior Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
City living has long been described as fast-paced. Now, there's data to prove just how much faster it has become.
A new study led from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reveals that pedestrians in three major northeastern U.S. cities—Boston, New York and Philadelphia —are moving 15 percent faster than they did in 1980.
They also found that fewer people are lingering in public spaces, with the number dropping by 14 percent over the past three decades.
Read More on Science
Co-author Arianna Salazar-Miranda, an assistant professor at Yale, told Newsweek that the findings suggest a shift in how people use public spaces.
She said: "One interpretation is that public social life is weakening. The reasons for this shift are likely multifaceted—rising opportunity costs of time and the lure of indoor spaces like cafes—but the result seems to be less social interaction happening out in the open.
"This matters because public spaces like sidewalks and plazas have historically served as places for social mixing. When they start to function more like corridors than gathering spots, we risk losing that integrative role. That has implications not just for social cohesion, but also for cities' ability to generate informal encounters that drive creativity, civic engagement, and community.
"Of course, social life may not have disappeared; it may just be happening elsewhere. But even if it's moved indoors, that shift still changes the character of urban life. Private venues tend to attract more homogenous groups, so there are fewer chances to encounter people from different walks of life. If we care about public space as a place where different kinds of people can interact, this is a trend worth paying attention to."
...
Faster Footsteps, Fewer Connections
Newsweek discussed the findings with Ruth Conroy Dalton, a professor of Architecture at Northumbria University in the UK. She said: "A rise in walking speed shortens the average street journey by about 13 percent, which means fewer seconds in which passer‑by interactions, eye‑contact, or simply 'being present' can occur."
The same study found that fewer people are lingering in public spaces, with the number dropping by 14 percent over the past three decades.
"Something has changed over the past 40 years," MIT professor of the practice Carlo Ratti, a co-author of the new study, said in a statement.
"How fast we walk, how people meet in public space—what we're seeing here is that public spaces are working in somewhat different ways, more as a thoroughfare and less a space of encounter."
Dalton, who was not involved in the MIT-led research, pointed to findings from her own work to illustrate similar trends.
A national survey she co-authored of 2,029 UK adults found that more than half of respondents (54 percent) agreed that "walking around areas filled with boring buildings affects how I feel."
She explained: "When the street itself gives you less to linger over, you tend to hurry through it even faster, creating a feedback loop of lower dwell-time and thinner social exchange.
"The same study shows a parallel loss of community agency. A public that feels both rushed and powerless is, unsurprisingly, more detached from its streets."
AI Meets Urban Design
In the new study, the researchers used machine learning to analyze video footage taken by famed urbanist William Whyte between 1978 and 1980.
These recordings—captured in now-iconic public spaces such as Bryant Park and the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—offered a snapshot of social behavior in late-20th-century city life.
In 2010, a research team led by sociologist Keith Hampton recreated Whyte's filming conditions, shooting updated footage from the same locations at the same time of day.
Ratti told Newsweek: "Like nature, urban design should embrace experimentation - trying different configurations to see which best foster human connection.
"This was also the goal of William H. Whyte's groundbreaking work in the 1970s. He painstakingly annotated hours of Super 8 footage by hand (a process he famously called the 'crux'). Today, as we show in our paper, AI and digital tools allow us to analyze thousands of hours of footage in seconds.
"That means we can finally understand at scale how people move, gather, and interact in public. And with that knowledge, we can design better spaces. Spaces that do not isolate but invite."
From Sidewalk Chats to Starbucks
Among the most striking findings was a drop in the number of people who joined groups after entering public spaces. In 1980, 5.5 percent of individuals arriving at locations like Boston's Downtown Crossing or Philadelphia's Chestnut Street ended up socializing in a group. By 2010, that figure had plummeted to just 2 percent.
"Perhaps there's a more transactional nature to public space today," Ratti said.
The reasons for this shift appear to be multifaceted. The researchers point to the rise of smartphones, which allow people to coordinate plans digitally before stepping outside. Social interactions that might have once unfolded spontaneously on a street corner now happen through text messages or group chats.
"When you look at the footage from William Whyte, people in public spaces were looking at each other more," said Ratti. "It was a place you could start a conversation or run into a friend. You couldn't do things online then."
Coffee culture may also be playing a role. The proliferation of chain cafés and indoor meeting spaces may be drawing people away from sidewalks and into climate-controlled, Wi-Fi-equipped venues.
Designing Better Public Spaces
The researchers hope their work will inform how cities design and redesign public areas — especially at a time when digital polarization is reshaping how people connect in real life.
"Public space is such an important element of civic life," said co-author Arianna Salazar-Miranda, an assistant professor at Yale.
"The more we can keep improving public space, the more we can make our cities suited for convening."
Looking Ahead
Following the success of this U.S.-based analysis, the MIT team is now expanding its research to 40 urban squares across Europe.
The goal is to better understand how people use public spaces across cultures — and how city design can encourage more meaningful human interaction.
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about sea silk? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
Update 07/31/25 11:06 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comments from Arianna Salazar Miranda and Carlo Ratti.
Reference
Salazar-Miranda, A., Fan, Z., Baick, M., Hampton, K. N., Duarte, F., Loo, B. P. Y., Glaeser, E., & Ratti, C. (2025). Exploring the social life of urban spaces through AI. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(30). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2424662122
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines