Rotation Behaviour of Pedestrians in Bidirectional and Crossing Flows

Abstract

Rotating ones body is a strategy pedestrians commonly use to avoid collisions. Even though this behaviour impacts capacity heavily, this rotation behaviour is seldomly studied. This research aims to increase insight into rotation behaviour of pedestrians in high density bidirectional and crossing flows. Based on data from the CrowdLimits experiments, the effect of density, movement base case, flow ratio and disturbances on the rotation behaviour of pedestrians are studied. The main findings are that all these four factors impact the number of rotations in a flow. Yet, further research is necessary to better identify to what extent and when these factors impact the rotation behaviour most.