pespedis

Pespedis is a term used in a small body of worldbuilding and speculative-fiction writing to describe a fictional discipline that studies pedestrian movement and space use in urban environments. It treats walking behavior as a measurable phenomenon, combining empirical observation with computer simulation to understand how people navigate streets, plazas, and transit hubs in imagined cities.

The term appears in fan-created encyclopedias and role-playing game supplements. It has no formal status in real-world academia and is typically presented as a creative tool within a fictional setting rather than a sanctioned discipline.

Methods within pespedis include field observation, timed walks, route tracing, and the collection of sensor or surveillance-like data in fictional cities. Analyses use agent-based models or simplified spatial heuristics to simulate pedestrian flow, bottlenecks, and evacuation dynamics.

Applications in worldbuilding range from designing believable residential quarters and transit corridors to determining where non-player characters move, how stories unfold along routes, and how crowds respond during events. Limitations include its speculative basis and the lack of standardized terminology or validation.

See also: Pedestrian dynamics, crowd simulation, urban design, worldbuilding.