Experimental Study of Pedestrian Crossing Mechanism in Crowds

Pedestrian crossing behavior is ubiquitous, while relevant studies are limited. In this paper, a series of supervised experiments are conducted to explore the movement characteristics of pedestrians crossing different crowds. As demonstrated from the trajectories, when pedestrians cross the static crowd, anticipation behavior makes pedestrians cross the fixed cross-channel more frequently. Correspondingly, when pedestrians cross the dynamic crowd, anticipation behavior has a shorter duration, and pedestrians can accelerate or decelerate in advance without being able to plan the route. Moreover, spiral-shaped trajectories, a compulsory movement mechanism similar to the phenomenon of turbulence in crowd disaster resulting from the forces acting from the crowd, were observed among individuals in extremely high-density situations. Studies on these crossing behaviors will help us investigate the mechanisms of crowd turbulence formation.