The continuing trend towards the design of more slender, lighter, and livel
ier footbridges has created new challenges that are not properly addressed
in a number of widely used codes of practice in Europe and Canada. Recent r
esearch into vibration serviceability of slender structures under human-ind
uced dynamic loading suggests that improvements to the existing footbridge
design guidelines are possible in the area of modelling human-induced excit
ation in the vertical direction. This paper evaluates the performance of cu
rrently used codes of practice regarding vibration serviceability of footbr
idges under human-induced loads due to walking. The evaluation is supported
by experimental evidence from tests carried out by the authors on potentia
lly lively footbridges. A description of recent research advances is includ
ed, together with a comparative analysis of the approaches of some pertinen
t guidelines used internationally to tackle this design problem. In additio
n, suggestions are made for re-addressing the problem of vibration servicea
bility of footbridges by focusing attention on a more realistic definition
of vertical pedestrian loading and the corresponding frequency ranges of in
terest. It was found that the codes are either conservative or lack appropr
iate safety margins, depending on the frequency range excited by moving ped
estrians. This is principally due to the lack of proper consideration for t
he frequency content of the pedestrian load, which would take into account
developments since the 1970s when the scientific data used in the majority
of the current codes of practice were produced.