First 5 months of Old Town motion sensor data: the heaviest foot traffic is at Viru Gate

Of all the movement that was observed through the gates, 51% were entries and 49% exits. People go to Old Town the most on Saturdays and most visits were made in the afternoon between 15:00-17:00. The first five months of data indicate that the busiest location in Old Town is the Viru Gate (Viru Street 27), where over a fifth (21%) of the measured traffic occurred (a total of 2.14 million entries and exits). Nunne (13% of traffic) and Vana-Viru (10% of traffic) are in second and third place for entries and exits.

Entering Old Town is most common via Viru 27 (18% of all entries in the first five months), the Great Coastal Gate (15%) and Vana-Viru Street (12%). The Viru Gate at Viru 27 also has the highest number of exits (24%). Even though overall, there is a more or less even split between people who enter and exit at the gates, percentages differ at some of them. For example, entries constitute 85% of movement via the Great Coastal Gate. The percentage of people entering Old Town is also significantly higher than the percentage of people exiting at the Väike-Karja Gate (67%), while the percentage of exits is higher than the percentage entries at the Suur-Karja Gate (67%).

In regard to weekdays, the busiest day in the first five months was Saturday, when 17% of all visits to Old Town were made. The most common time to visit Old Town is during the day (15:00-17:00). On weekdays most traffic occurs between 08:00-17:00 and on weekends from 11:00-20:00.

More information about movement through the various gates is available on the Old Town foot traffic workspace. It gives a brief overview regarding how many visits are taken to Old Town – on which days, at what times, and via which gates people enter or exit Old Town. The information is currently only in Estonian.