Spontaneous synchronization of motion in pedestrian crowds of different densities

Interacting pedestrians in a crowd spontaneously adjust their footsteps and align their respective stepping phases. This self-organization phenomenon is known as synchronization. However, it is unclear why and how synchronization forms spontaneously under different density conditions, or what functi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature human behaviour 2021-04, Vol.5 (4), p.447-457
Main Authors: Ma, Yi, Lee, Eric Wai Ming, Shi, Meng, Yuen, Richard Kwok Kit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/57
639/166
Behavioral Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Crowding
Crowds
Density
Experimental Psychology
Experiments
Group Processes
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Legs
Life Sciences
Microeconomics
Motion
Movement - physiology
Neurosciences
Pedestrians
Pedestrians - statistics & numerical data
Personality and Social Psychology
Spatial Behavior - physiology
Walking - physiology
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Summary:Interacting pedestrians in a crowd spontaneously adjust their footsteps and align their respective stepping phases. This self-organization phenomenon is known as synchronization. However, it is unclear why and how synchronization forms spontaneously under different density conditions, or what functional benefit synchronization offers for the collective motion of humans. Here, we conducted a single-file crowd motion experiment that directly tracked the alternating movement of both legs of interacting pedestrians. We show that synchronization is most likely to be triggered at the same density at which the flow rate of pedestrians reaches a maximum value. We demonstrate that synchronization is established in response to an insufficient safety distance between pedestrians, and that it enables pedestrians to realize efficient collective stepping motion without the occurrence of inter-person collisions. These findings provide insights into the collective motion behaviour of humans and may have implications for understanding pedestrian synchronization-induced wobbling, for example, of bridges. Ma et al. examine why and how crowd synchronization forms spontaneously under different density conditions and what functional benefit synchronization offers for the collective motion of humans.
ISSN:2397-3374
2397-3374
DOI:10.1038/s41562-020-00997-3