Group Dynamic Behavior and Psychometric Profiles as Substantial Driver for Pedestrian Dynamics

Abstract

Our current research lays emphasis on the extended pedestrian perception and copes with both the dynamic group behavior and the individual evaluation of situations, and hence, rather focuses on the tactical level of movement behavior. Whereas common movement models primary consider operational aspects (spatial exclusion or distance and direction related repulsion), the consideration of psychophysical concepts and intra-group coordination overcomes the idea of directed repulsion forces and derives specific movement decision with respect to the individual evaluation of situations. To provide a solid basis we analyze both data recorded at a mass event and data from a double-staged evacuation test to derive essential group dynamic behaviors and psychological related decision principles, respectively.For the data acquisition in the field, we recorded the movement behavior of the participants of the German Protestant Kirchentag at Dresden (1.-5. June 2011 with 120,000 fulltime participants and approx. 50,000 guests) and use this data as a solid base for the group constellation and behavior. As our data points out, there are significant differences in the density-speed-relation (fundamental diagram) regarding the constellation of groups. Heterogeneous crowds consists of independent pedestrians possess a homogenous density and each pedestrian has a high flexibility to change the speed and the direction of motion. The effect of clustered density (alternating local density clusters and open space) increases with the amount of groups, their mobility, and with the group size ( fig. 1). These density spots significantly change the individual speed characteristic and the corresponding movement behavior (e.g. distance keeping, collision avoidance).

Social Force Model-Based Group Behavior Simulation in Virtual Geographic Environments

“…Mehdi Moussaid observed that more than 70% pedestrians walk in groups along a commercial street [15]. Michael Schultz analyzed data on bridges, where participants had to use an underpass to gain access to an event, and discovered that only 14% of pedestrians are individuals [24]. These data corroborate the importance of social groups.…”

Adaptive pedestrian behaviour for the preservation of group cohesion

“…In particular, two different approaches are compared here: (i) dispersion as occupied area and (ii) dispersion as distance from the centroid of the group. This topic was also considered in the context of computer vision algorithms (Schultz et al 2012), in which however essentially only line abreast patterns were analysed. Therefore we will focus on the former approach.…”

Empirical study on social groups in pedestrian evacuation dynamics

“…The presence of social groups can influence the dynamics of pedestrian crowds. Social groups often move slower and reduce the walking speed of the pedestrians [3,8,9,10]. However, Manenti et al [11] observed that group members can walk faster than individuals in high density scenarios.…”

“…This configuration becomes "U"-like for groups with four pedestrians. Larger groups tend to split up to smaller groups of two or three members [3,5,13,14,15]. In pedestrian crowds the averaged minimum distance headway within a social group increases with increasing group size.…”