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Pedestrian stepping dynamics in single-file movement

Yi Ma, Ying Ying Sun, Eric Wai Ming Lee, and Richard Kowk Kit Yuen
Phys. Rev. E 98, 062311 – Published 14 December 2018
Physics logo See Synopsis: How Walkers Avoid Collisions

Abstract

In this paper, we present a pedestrian single-file movement experiment that directly captures the characteristics of the interacting pedestrians’ continuous stepping behaviors. We find that the relationship between step length (duration) and spatial headway exhibits piecewise linear behavior: It first increases linearly as the headway increases and then remains constant when the headway exceeds 1.20 m (0.71 m). Three different regimes are observed and defined on the basis of their relationships. The continuous small-step phenomena are found in a strongly constrained regime. We reveal that the relationship between the step duration and the step velocity is nonmonotonous and that the longest duration is seen at a velocity of 1.35 m/s, whereas the relationship between the step length and the step velocity is monotonous and can be well represented by a quartic function. Furthermore, we show that the dependency of the ratio between head displacement and foot displacement in a step on the headway is a piecewise linear relationship. We were interested to find that the ratio is less (greater) than 0.5 when the headway is less (greater) than 1 m. This finding reveals the backward- (forward-) deviating phenomena of the body and can be used to indirectly interpret the differences in some of the results of this paper and previous studies. Finally, we show that step synchronization (asynchronization) is most likely to occur at a headway of 0.76 m (0.51 m). These interesting findings greatly deepen our understanding of basic human stepping behavior.

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  • Received 24 September 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.98.062311

©2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
Interdisciplinary Physics

Synopsis

Key Image

How Walkers Avoid Collisions

Published 14 December 2018

Observations of large numbers of pedestrians in two new studies offer insights into how humans avoid bumping into each other.  

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Authors & Affiliations

Yi Ma1,*, Ying Ying Sun1,†, Eric Wai Ming Lee2,‡, and Richard Kowk Kit Yuen2,§

  • 1Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
  • 2Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

  • *yima23_c@scu.edu.cn
  • Corresponding author: sunying@scu.edu.cn
  • ericlee@cityu.edu.hk
  • §acehead@cityu.edu.hk

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Issue

Vol. 98, Iss. 6 — December 2018

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