Measure "Pedestrian frequency measurement in Jena's city center"

City centers are vibrant centers of urban life - places of commerce, culture, history, administration, identification and encounter. But they are facing major challenges: The transformation of structures and functions is changing their face. This development is also becoming apparent in Jena - with increasing and longer-lasting vacancies. It is not always sensible or possible to reuse the space for retail purposes, which creates new opportunities for creative and cultural interim uses. At the same time, major construction projects such as the Inselplatz campus and the redevelopment of Eichplatz are shaping the future city center - Jena will therefore undergo a noticeable transformation.

Grafik zeigt Sammlung von Menschen, die über die Straße gehen.

Digitale Technologien erfassen künftig kontinuierlich die Bewegungen von Menschen in zentralen Bereichen der Stadt.


©freepik

In order to better understand these developments, digital technologies will be used in future to continuously record the movements of passers-by in central areas of the city. This will make it easy to see how well attended events such as the Christmas market, the Kulturarena or open Sundays are and what impact construction measures have on visitor flows.

These measurements provide valuable data for retail, gastronomy and culture as well as for political and administrative decisions. Previously, surveys were carried out manually and inconsistently, which made comparisons difficult. Digitization now enables consistent and standardized data collection, which can be combined with other factors such as weather or event attendance figures. Pedestrian and visitor numbers are an important indicator of the attractiveness of public spaces - a kind of "voting with your feet".

The measure is being implemented in collaboration with the city's urban development department, the Jena Economic Development Agency and the "Digital infrastructure and data policy" field of action of the Smart City project.

  • Profile of measures


steckbrief_massnahme_passantenfrequenzmessung.pdf
(PDF | 655.58 KB)

Current status
  • Status: in the implementation phase
Milestones
  • The profile of measures has been submitted to the funding body and approved
  • a requirements analysis is being carried out
  • the terms of reference for the planning service have been drawn up
  • The kick-off workshop on May 5, 2025 marked the start of the survey of specific use cases in the city center. Together with representatives of the city administration, the JenaKultur and Kommunalservice Jena municipal enterprises and the Innenstadtinitiative e.V., the foundation was laid for further project work.