legends · 4 min read ·
Pedestrian Count
A pedestrian counter at a market square tallies a line of people who walk south and never return.
**Kerrow Borough — Pedestrian Movement Survey, Site 14 (Market Square, north entrance)**
*Counters stand at the marked position, 07:00–19:00, tally pedestrians crossing the survey line in 15-minute intervals. Direction: N or S.*
- **Interval · N · S · Total**
- 07:00–07:15 · 12 · 8 · 20
- 07:15–07:30 · 25 · 14 · 39
- 07:30–07:45 · 40 · 22 · 62
- 07:45–08:00 · 58 · 31 · 89
*Counter: S. Okonjo. Weather: dry, 8 °C.*
· · ·
**Counter's note (S. Okonjo, 6 October)**
Standard count. I used a hand tally with two clickers, one for each direction. At the end of the day, the clicker totals matched my pencilled tallies exactly.
I did not notice anything, except that at the end of the day I seemed to have counted a few more going south than north. I noted it. It is not unusual: people leave the square in the evening.
**Counter's note (13 October)**
Same count, same place. Totals: N 1,412; S 1,433. Net of 21 more going south than north.
· · ·
**Counter's note (20 October)**
N 1,388; S 1,451. Net 63 south.
I thought: people are passing the line without being counted going the other way. I stood at the line and watched. A man in a green coat crossed southward at 11:40. I clicked. At 11:55 I saw the same man crossing southward again. He had not gone north. He was walking south, in the same coat, at the same pace, with the same slight limp.
I clicked.
· · ·
**Counter's note (27 October)**
N 1,402; S 1,598. Net 196 south.
I watched a woman push a shopping trolley across the line at 14:10. I clicked south. A minute later she crossed again, from the north side, the trolley in front of her, southward. I counted her. She crossed again. Three times in ten minutes. She did not look at me. She did not turn back.
At 16:00 I realised that no pedestrian had crossed the line northward since noon.
· · ·
**Survey lead's report (A. Pryce, 30 October)**
I attended Site 14 on the 29th with a camera on a tripod. From 07:00 to 19:00 I filmed the line. I then counted the footage by hand, frame by frame.
North-bound: 1,388. South-bound: 1,412. Net 24 south.
The camera and the counter disagree. Mr. Okonjo's total for the same day is N 1,201; S 3,044. We tested the clickers. They were fine.
I walked the line myself. At 11:00, a man crossed southward, then crossed again. I looked at the camera. The camera shows him crossing once.
· · ·
**Survey lead's report (continued)**
The discrepancy is perceptual. The counter sees a stream of people moving south, in single file, passing the line again and again. The camera sees the normal traffic.
I sent a second counter to the site on the 30th. Her total: N 1,009; S 4,211. The same pattern, increased. It does not matter who counts. It does not depend on the equipment. The count rises, day by day, with the number of people who are watching.
The only people who see them are those who count.
· · ·
**Counter's note (final, S. Okonjo, 31 October)**
I have stopped counting. I stood at the line this afternoon without the clicker. I saw them. I think I saw them for the first time. The people crossing southward are not any of the people in the square. They are not pedestrians. They are a procession. They come out of the north entrance in one line, a man, a woman, a man, a woman, all walking with the same slow gait, all carrying nothing.
They go across the square. They do not go round the fountain. They go straight through it, and out the southern side, and I follow them with my eyes to the end of the street, where the road bends, and where they turn, one by one, and vanish.
There are a great many of them. The line has no end. I have been standing here since noon and the count is at 6,117. I have my clicker in my hand again. I do not remember picking it up. The line of them stretches back through the north entrance, further than I can see.
I clicked twice just now. Once for each direction. One of the clicks was for me.