Pedestrian density should be targeted using a "pedestrians per block" metric, not a "pedestrians per square meter" metric. 100 people on a wide pedestrian path is preferable to 100 people on a narrow pedestrian path of the same length. I don't think that constantly getting in the way of other people, getting stuck behind other people, and constantly bumping into other people helps anyone.
Then again, I also avoid concerts because crowd density, so maybe I'm just the odd one out here.
Well, it depends where you go. Amsterdam is certainly dense and claustrophobic, so are a lot of smaller towns built around markets. Then you have cities like Edinburgh or Paris that are built around the notion of wide boulevards. Most likely you'd find some fractal pattern in the distribution of wide vs narrow streets in most older cities.
Pedestrian density should be targeted using a "pedestrians per block" metric, not a "pedestrians per square meter" metric. 100 people on a wide pedestrian path is preferable to 100 people on a narrow pedestrian path of the same length. I don't think that constantly getting in the way of other people, getting stuck behind other people, and constantly bumping into other people helps anyone.
Then again, I also avoid concerts because crowd density, so maybe I'm just the odd one out here.