Hierarchical organization of pedestrian mobility is stable across cities

Hierarchical organization of pedestrian mobility is stable across cities | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Hierarchical organization of pedestrian mobility is stable across cities Fatemeh Nourmohammadi, Taha Rashidi, Meead Saberi This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9659277/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 7 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Walking is the most universal form of human mobility, yet it remains unclear whether pedestrian movement reflects local urban conditions or more general principles of collective human behaviour. Because pedestrian flows are rarely observed comprehensively across cities, the large-scale organization of walking remains poorly understood. Here, we infer pedestrian movement across multiple cities and examine whether walking flows exhibit consistent structural organization despite differences in urban form and network topology. Using transferable mobility models validated against observed pedestrian counts in Sydney and New York City, we find that pedestrian flows exhibit a stable hierarchical organization across cities. In all cases, a small fraction of locations accounts for a disproportionate share of total movement, and this concentration substantially exceeds expectations from topology-preserving null models. Walking flows are further organized around a dense core of high-flow locations, with most movement occurring within this core. While urban networks differ substantially in structure and flow intensity, the hierarchical organization of walking remains remarkably consistent across cities. These findings suggest that collective human walking follows transferable structural regularities that emerge from the interaction between behavioural tendencies and spatial constraints, providing insight into the organization of pedestrian mobility in support of more accessible and sustainable urban transport systems. Humanities/Complex networks Social science/Complex networks Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences Scientific community and society/Geography Social science/Geography Physical sciences/Physics Human mobility walking behaviour pedestrian networks transferability graph theory Full Text Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. M.S. is an Editorial Board Member of npj Sustainable Mobility and Transport but was not involved in the peer-review process or editorial decision-making for this manuscript. The authors declare no additional competing interests. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformation.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 16 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 15 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 12 May, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 12 May, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 12 May, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 11 May, 2026 First submitted to journal 08 May, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9659277","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":639815814,"identity":"b06fa7f1-a18e-47e2-b83b-84b6693011df","order_by":0,"name":"Fatemeh Nourmohammadi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"UNSW Sydney","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Fatemeh","middleName":"","lastName":"Nourmohammadi","suffix":""},{"id":639815815,"identity":"921cde68-daf8-476a-ae4f-aac58e5a9b0c","order_by":1,"name":"Taha Rashidi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"UNSW Sydney","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Taha","middleName":"","lastName":"Rashidi","suffix":""},{"id":639815818,"identity":"dd518a35-97e2-4d26-b83e-a7a454a702d1","order_by":2,"name":"Meead Saberi","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA9klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLACHiA2AOIDH6ACEkRrOTiDZC3MPMRo0W1vPvjhDUOdvDl778PDtm137A0OMB+8zcNgl9iAQ4vZmWPJknMYDhvu7DlucDi37VnihgNsydY8DMm4tdzIMZDmYTjAuOFGGgNQy+EEswM8ZkARZtxa7r///JuHoc5+w/1nDIct2w7bmx3g/wbUUo/HFh42sJkbbrAxHGZsO8y47QBY5DAev6SZWc4xOJy8syeN4WDPucOJ+w+zGQNFjhvj1HL88OMbbyrqbLezH2P+8KPssL1ke/NDoEi1LC4tEGCAzGHGEBkFo2AUjIJRQCoAADLtWZMpi5VPAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"UNSW Sydney","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Meead","middleName":"","lastName":"Saberi","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-05-09 03:24:43","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9659277/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9659277/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":109249507,"identity":"e4a96ed8-8e11-47c3-b3c3-ce3e95b2c1bd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-14 08:54:46","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":15044290,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Mainmanuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9659277/v1_covered_df7c43ae-05f4-4ebd-9477-21874449d309.pdf"},{"id":109244004,"identity":"27c8fce6-4a4d-4821-a1f6-c397c880bf1c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-14 07:33:55","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":2132053,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryInformation.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9659277/v1/87ee4b8f3f5d4e3e127f3d1f.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"Competing interest reported. 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