Pedestrians as an Innovation Key for Urban Research: A Bibliometric Network Analysis and Literature Review

The role of pedestrian movement in urban environments is often overlooked, despite its critical importance in supporting effective city functioning and long-term sustainability. While there has been growing scholarly interest in this area, research on pedestrian mobility remains fragmented across various disciplines and lacks a unified framework. For urban planners and designers to collaborate more effectively, a clearer understanding of the key themes shaping pedestrian mobility is needed. This paper addresses that gap by organizing and analysing existing research through a bibliometric review of 1934 articles published between 1994 and 2023 in the Web of Science database. This article explores the evolution of pedestrian mobility research between 1994 and 2023, highlighting key topics and potential future directions. The bibliometric analysis draws on a range of indicators, including published papers, citation data, journal impact factors, h-index scores, top-cited authors and papers, and regional trends in research output. Most importantly, science mapping was conducted using the SciMAT software, with co-occurrence networks helping to reveal how research themes have evolved over time. The extensive body of work on pedestrian mobility made it possible to develop a conceptual map that traces the field’s intellectual development. From this analysis, five key thematic areas were identified: health, methods, environmental–social, city, and mobility.