The effect of stepping on pedestrian trajectories

Michael J. Seitz, Felix Dietrich and Gerta Köster

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2015, vol. 421, issue C, 594-604

Abstract: The natural biomechanical motion process of many animals is stepwise. This feature of human movement and other bipeds is largely ignored in simulation models of pedestrians and crowds. We present a concise movement model for pedestrians based on stepwise movement. A series of controlled experiments was conducted to calibrate the model based on individual behaviour of pedestrians. We find that a change of direction is constrained by the current walking speed: the higher the speed the smaller the possible change of direction. Additionally, we present the trajectories and distances subjects held to a wall when walking around a corner. We use this result as a parameter for the simulation model. Finally, we validate the model’s behaviour with an egress scenario with a corridor as bottleneck. The resulting trajectories show behaviour that has been found in controlled experiments with similar set-ups: if there is enough space, individuals try to walk in the middle of the corridor, but when a congestion is present multiple lanes form allowing for higher pedestrian flow. The model separates the behavioural aspects from biomechanical movement thus facilitating expandability and allowing experts to focus on their respective fields of expertise.

Keywords: Pedestrian dynamics; Simulation; Controlled experiments; Stepping behaviour; Empirical (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037843711401036X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:421:y:2015:i:c:p:594-604

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2014.11.064

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().