Update – December 2021: We are currently reviewing footfall monitoring to better understand the needs of our members.

Did you know the BID deploys 16 footfall counters across our area?

These are unobtrusively sited within local restaurants, hotels and shops and track pedestrian volumes and patterns from Marble Arch to Edgware Road 24/7.

Installed in the first year of the BID’s operation, we now have 3 years’ worth of data. Insights from this data have proved invaluable in making the case for more pedestrian crossings at our busiest junctions and in supporting funding applications to improve the local trading and operating environment.

Footfall data helps us to make forecasts, to identify seasonal variations, to shape our services to businesses and the local community, to assess the impact of highway works or construction activity, to monitor our own activities and to measure impact.

Some insights our team found interesting include:

• The busiest month in 2019 was July with 4.8 million visitors, the quietest month was February with 2.7 million visitors.
• The busiest day was Thursday 18 July 2019 with 184,160 people visiting the area and the quietest day was bank holiday Sunday 26 May 2019 with 105,321 visitors.
• The busiest day of the week is Thursday, averaging 136,872 visitors a day and the quietest day of the week is Sunday with 103,207 visitors, closely followed by Saturday.
• The busiest hour is from 5:00-6:00pm, closely followed by 6:00-7:00pm and 4:00-5:00pm. The quietest hour of the day is from 4:00-5:00am. Interestingly, it is as busy at 8:00-9:00am as it is at 8:00-9:00pm.

We are currently looking at more sophisticated tracking that might include analysis of pedestrian route patterns, location dwell time and new versus returning visitors.

Our aim is to be able to easily share these valuable insights with BID members in future, to help inform operational and strategic decisions.

If you have questions about footfall monitoring please email getinvolved@marble-arch.london or find out more about the BID’s work to improve the local trading and operating environment.