While sitting at Union Square in downtown New York City, a couple of my class mates (Heather and Katya) and I began an observation of the massive crowds around the park. We started off by noticing that there was a large number of people walking around using their cell phone, handheld game consoles, digital cameras or mp3 players.
Observation#1:
We decided to take a quick tally of the number of people sitting down on one of the sets of stairs that goes around the Southside of the park. Out of 53 people that where sitting we noticed that only 2 where using their cell phone, 3 using their mp3 player, 1 using a digital camera and only 11 of the people carried wrist watches. This was the only noticeable technology that people where using.
Observation #2:
The Union Square Traffic light at Broadway and E. 14th St. was something that caught my attention. The traffic goes one way from north to south and two way from east to west. All this traffic and people controlled by 6 traffic lights and 8 walking lights. During rush hour around 40 people line up on each side of the road waiting for the light to change green and fulfill their objective of crossing the street. When the light turned green a heard of people launched them selves to cross. The most interesting time of this process was when the two opposing crowds met at the middle of the street and began to swerve left and right to avoid colliding with fellow pedestrians. A few where not so successful and crashed into people coming at them. The next part of the equation was the cars. The cars going east and west had no problems traveling part the traffic light, unless then needed to make a turn into Broadway. The crowd of pedestrians prevented cars from making a turn; leading into instant traffic jam and honking.
Observation #3:
Au bon Pain was a venue that we decided to observe after the Union Square park observation. During the noon rush hour I decided to take note on the amount of time people took from the moment they walked into the store, till they walked away with their shops. These are the results of the people that completed the transaction.
Girl 1: 3′ 30″ Purchased: Pre-made salad and bottled juice.
Girl 2: 6′ 30″ Purchased: Sandwich and bottle of juice.
Girl 3; 3′ Purchased: Soup.
Guy 1: 3′ 30″ Purchased a Muffin and Bottled ice tea.
Guy 2: 9′ Purchased: Sandwich and a bottled drink.
Guy 3: 6′ 30″ Purchased: Sandwich.
I’m not sure what this all means but one thing that I did noticed is that none of the people directly used any digital devices owned by Au Bon Pain.