Pedestrians Continue Their Return to Downtown Areas

Year over year, pedestrians in 2023 appeared to head downtown more often than they did in the 12 months leading up to November last year. Compared to 2022, weekday traffic was up 2.6% in the period, according to an analysis by MRI Real Estate Software. But fluctuations from month to month still make prediction challenging.

For instance, in the month October through November, pedestrian traffic declined 5.4%, after rising 2.4% from the previous month across U.S. downtowns. The slump in traffic in the month of Thanksgiving and Black Friday seems counterintuitive. But MRI described it as a natural trend that happens every year. In fact, this year’s dip was less severe than dips experienced before Covid. Historically traffic has fallen 8.3% during the month.

In three out of the four weeks of November 2023, downtown pedestrian traffic declined by an average of 5.5% a week. But it perked up by 3% in the second week of the month. MRI posited that the monthly drop could be due to Thanksgiving Day when 33% fewer pedestrians hit the streets.

The 4.7% improvement in downtown pedestrian traffic for the year could be due to the return of employees to offices during the week. But weekends saw 0.3% fewer people on the sidewalks.

Despite the falloff on Thanksgiving Day, the week began with an average 6.7% hike in the number of pedestrians downtown. There was a drop on Tuesday of that week before it rebounded 1% the day before Thanksgiving. Black Friday began another period of lower traffic, though the day itself ended stronger than it began and up 3.5% on 2022 figures.

The difference in pedestrian traffic in October 2022 and October 2023 narrowed, “suggesting that consumers who want to visit downtowns and spend in the lead up to Christmas will do so regardless of if they have the funds available to do so,” the report stated.