Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
When trying to plan pedestrian environments, the answer may be to follow the crowd. Mehdi Moussaid of the Max Planck Institute and Dirk Helbing of ETH Zurich study pedestrian behaviour. Using computer models and particle theory, they analyze decision making patterns of people travelling by foot. When encountering an oncoming pedestrian, will you choose to pass on the left or right? It turns out that factors such as density, culture and grouping have a significant impact on such decisions. As The Economist points out, understanding this behaviour could improve everything from traffic control to emergency evacuations to the haj.
Image from Omar Chatriwala
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