Exploring New Pedestrian Research Through a CPTED Lens
By Michael White CPP CRM SAS-AP CPD – Secretary
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) has always been grounded in a simple yet powerful premise: people behave in predictable ways, and the built environment can influence those behaviours. While CPTED practitioners commonly examine sightlines, territorial reinforcement, access control, activity support, and maintenance, our understanding of human movement patterns continues to evolve through ongoing research.
As CPTED practitioners have observed, human movement is rarely random. Tom McKay, a long-time student of environmental criminology and originator of the concept of Behavioural Based Design, argued in his article, “How predictable is your behaviour?” that people frequently make predictable choices when navigating their environment. Whether selecting routes through transportation networks, choosing entrances and exits, or moving through public spaces, these behavioural patterns often emerge repeatedly and can influence the success or failure of environmental design strategies. Understanding those predictable tendencies lies at the heart of both CPTED and environmental criminology.
A recently published article by CTV News on June 14th, 2026 that spoke about a study published on June 10th, 2026, by researchers from Spain and Japan has identified an intriguing behavioural tendency: when people are allowed to move freely, they appear to demonstrate a strong preference for turning counter-clockwise. In 32 of 33 experimental trials, participants consistently drifted toward counter-clockwise movement regardless of culture, gender, handedness, or other commonly assumed influences. Researchers observed the phenomenon in both Spain and Japan and found that even individual pedestrians displayed the same tendency. The effect was particularly pronounced among younger participants, although the underlying cause remains unknown.
At first glance, this discovery may seem like an interesting curiosity with limited practical application. However, when viewed through a CPTED framework, the implications become far more relevant. Human movement is one of the foundational elements of environmental design. Understanding even subtle directional preferences may help practitioners better predict pedestrian behaviour, improve natural surveillance opportunities, reduce conflict points, and enhance the overall effectiveness of public spaces.
Understanding Human Behaviour as a CPTED Foundation
One of the distinguishing characteristics of CPTED is its emphasis on behavioural predictability. Criminals, legitimate users, visitors, and residents all interact with space in ways that are influenced by environmental cues. CPTED seeks to understand those interactions and use design to encourage positive behaviour while discouraging undesirable activity.
The newly identified counter-clockwise movement preference may represent another example of an unconscious behavioural pattern that influences how people navigate spaces. Researchers found that the tendency did not emerge solely because of crowd dynamics. Instead, individual pedestrians demonstrated the same directional bias, suggesting that the preference may originate from human biomechanics, neurological processing, or some other yet-to-be-identified factor.
For CPTED practitioners, this reinforces a lesson that has long been understood in environmental psychology: people rarely move randomly. Movement patterns are often influenced by subconscious decisions that occur well before individuals consciously recognize them.
If future research confirms that humans possess consistent directional movement tendencies, environmental designers may be able to incorporate that knowledge into circulation planning, crowd management strategies, and public space design.
Implications for Natural Surveillance
Natural surveillance remains one of CPTED’s most recognized principles. The ability of legitimate users to observe activity within a space increases perceived risk for offenders while simultaneously improving actual and perceived safety.
Movement patterns play a significant role in creating surveillance opportunities. Areas that attract predictable pedestrian circulation naturally generate more informal observation. Conversely, spaces that disrupt natural movement may inadvertently create isolated pockets with reduced visibility and fewer capable guardians.
If pedestrians demonstrate a subtle preference for counter-clockwise circulation, designers may wish to consider how pathways, plazas, transit hubs, recreational trails, and public gathering spaces align with those tendencies. A circulation pattern that works with natural human movement could encourage more fluid use of space and increase the consistency of pedestrian presence.
For example, public squares, museum exhibits, community centres, and large institutional facilities often rely on circulation loops. If visitors naturally gravitate toward a particular direction of travel, strategically positioning key surveillance points, information kiosks, security personnel, or activity nodes along those anticipated routes may improve observational coverage.
The research does not suggest that every pathway should be redesigned to force counter-clockwise movement. Rather, it highlights the importance of understanding how behavioural tendencies can influence where people congregate, pause, or travel.
Access Control and Movement Management
The CPTED principle of natural access control focuses on guiding movement in ways that establish appropriate behavioural expectations while reducing opportunities for crime.
Access control is often discussed in terms of fencing, gates, doors, and barriers. However, circulation design is equally important. The layout of pathways, corridors, entrances, and transition zones influences how people approach and move through a space.
Researchers studying the counter-clockwise phenomenon suggest that understanding directional preferences may ultimately contribute to improved crowd simulations and public-space design.
This possibility has direct relevance to CPTED applications.
Large public venues such as sports stadiums, transportation terminals, entertainment districts, educational campuses, and civic facilities frequently experience congestion at decision points where users must choose between multiple routes. If movement patterns are not aligned with natural tendencies, congestion and conflict may increase.
Understanding directional bias could help designers predict which routes users are most likely to choose, allowing for more effective placement of entrances, exits, queuing systems, and wayfinding elements. In security-sensitive environments, this knowledge may also support more effective emergency evacuation planning and crowd management strategies.
Territorial Reinforcement and User Comfort
Territorial reinforcement seeks to establish ownership, responsibility, and a sense of place. While often associated with landscaping, signage, and boundary definition, territorial reinforcement also depends heavily on user comfort and intuitive navigation.
People tend to feel more comfortable in environments that are easy to understand and navigate. Confusing circulation systems can create frustration, increase stress, and reduce the sense of ownership that CPTED seeks to foster.
One reason CPTED practitioners frequently advocate for clear pathways and intuitive layouts is that users should not have to work to understand how a space functions. The environment itself should communicate expected behaviour.
If future research can confirm consistent directional movement tendencies, environments that align with those tendencies may feel more intuitive and comfortable for users. Increased comfort can translate into greater occupancy, more legitimate activity, and stronger territorial ownership.
Although the effect identified by researchers appears subtle, CPTED often succeeds through the cumulative impact of numerous small design decisions rather than any single intervention.
Activity Support and Space Activation
Second Generation CPTED expanded the profession’s focus beyond physical design to include social cohesion, activity support, and community development.
Activity support encourages the placement of legitimate activities in ways that attract positive users and increase natural guardianship. Understanding pedestrian flow patterns is essential to this process.
Retail centres provide a practical example. Shopping malls, markets, and commercial districts rely heavily on circulation patterns to distribute visitors throughout a space. Similar principles apply to parks, waterfronts, campuses, and cultural venues.
Researchers have noted that understanding directional bias may ultimately assist architects, engineers, and planners in creating more realistic models of human movement.
For CPTED practitioners conducting assessments of public spaces, future studies on directional movement may provide additional insight into where activity generators should be positioned to maximize legitimate use and natural surveillance. Activity nodes located along preferred circulation routes are likely to receive greater visibility and participation than those situated in less intuitive locations.
Implications for Crowd Safety and Security
Perhaps the most immediate CPTED relevance lies within crowd management and public safety.
The research itself emerged from studies examining pedestrian movement and social distancing. Researchers observed that the counter-clockwise bias repeatedly appeared when groups moved through enclosed spaces.
Crowd behaviour has long been a concern within CPTED, particularly in environments where large numbers of people gather. Festivals, demonstrations, transit hubs, sporting events, and public celebrations all involve dynamic interactions between people and space.
Even small behavioural tendencies can become amplified when thousands of individuals occupy the same environment. Understanding these tendencies may help planners anticipate movement patterns, identify potential bottlenecks, and improve crowd circulation during both routine operations and emergencies.
The concept aligns closely with CPTED’s broader goal of designing environments that support safe, predictable, and manageable human behaviour.
The Importance of Evidence-Based CPTED
Perhaps the most valuable lesson from this research is not the counter-clockwise phenomenon itself but the reminder that CPTED must remain evidence-based.
The study demonstrates how seemingly insignificant observations can reveal previously unknown aspects of human behaviour. The researchers themselves did not initially set out to study directional bias; they discovered it while investigating an entirely different problem.
This is precisely the type of interdisciplinary research that CPTED practitioners should monitor. Advances in behavioural science, environmental psychology, biomechanics, transportation planning, and crowd dynamics all contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of how people interact with place.
Interestingly, previous research has suggested that directional preferences may not be entirely uniform. Scharine and McBeath’s study, Right-Handers and Americans Favour Turning to the Right, found that handedness, particularly right-handedness, and cultural factors such as roadway conventions may influence directional choices. This highlights an important consideration for CPTED practitioners: human behaviour is rarely governed by a single variable. Rather, movement patterns are likely influenced by a combination of biological tendencies, learned behaviours, environmental cues, and social norms. As additional research emerges, practitioners should remain cautious about applying any one behavioural finding as a universal design principle.
As CPTED continues to evolve, practitioners must remain willing to incorporate emerging evidence while resisting the temptation to overstate preliminary findings. At present, researchers do not know why humans appear to favour counter-clockwise movement, and much additional research will be required before definitive design recommendations can be made.
Looking Ahead
The discovery that humans may possess an inherent preference for counter-clockwise movement will not revolutionize CPTED overnight. However, it represents another piece of the larger puzzle that CPTED practitioners seek to solve: understanding how human behaviour interacts with the built environment.
The emerging research on counter-clockwise movement should not be viewed in isolation. Earlier studies have suggested that factors such as handedness and cultural norms may also influence directional choices. Together, these findings remind CPTED practitioners that understanding human behaviour requires examining multiple interacting influences rather than seeking a single explanation. The challenge and opportunity for CPTED professionals is to continually refine our understanding of how people predictably interact with the environments we create.
Every advancement in our understanding of pedestrian movement improves our ability to create safer, more comfortable, and more resilient places. Whether designing a public park, assessing a transit station, planning a civic square, or evaluating a school campus, CPTED professionals benefit from understanding the subtle behavioural tendencies that influence how people move through space.
As future studies explore the origins and implications of this phenomenon, CPTED practitioners should view this research not as a design prescription, but as an invitation to continue examining the relationship between human behaviour and environmental design. After all, CPTED has always been most effective when it is informed by evidence, guided by observation, and grounded in an understanding of how people naturally use the spaces we create.
Once we understand that people do not simply move through places, but are quietly shaped by them, we may never look at the built environment the same way again