[tt] the physics arXiv blog

[Eugen Leitl]

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From: the physics arXiv blog <howdy at arxivblog.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 15:07:32 -0500 (CDT)
To: eugen at leitl.org
Subject: the physics arXiv blog
Reply-To: the physics arXiv blog <howdy at arxivblog.com>


[1]the physics arXiv blog

   [2]How many pedestrians can squeeze through a corridor?

   Posted: 03 Jul 2008 12:32 AM CDT

   [3]Walking 

   There's chaos in the corridors at the labs of Michael Schreckenberg
   and colleagues at the University Duisberg-Essen in Germany.
   Schreckenberg specialises in the physics of traffic and transport and
   has been fascinated by a particular question: how much pedestrian
   traffic can you squeeze into a shopping mall during the peak shopping
   hours?

   This question has been investigated for people walking in one
   direction but in reality, most public spaces involve people walking in
   both directions at the same time.

   To mimic these conditions , he sent 67 volunteers careering down a
   corridor at his labs in both directions and measured the flow.

   It turns out that regardless of the speed or asymmetries in the flow,
   the total amount of traffic-the sum of the flow and counterflow-is
   always higher than in the flow in a single direction.

   Schreckenberg says that could be important for designing evacuation
   procedures in an emergency situation, particularly in confined spaces
   such as ships and shopping malls.

   However, I'd be interested to know the age distribution of
   Schreckenberg's volunteers-he says that most of them are in their
   twenties.

   That may make his results applicable in only certain situaitons such
   as on board naval ships where almost everyone will be young.

   But obviously not for shopping malls where one 83-year old with a
   zimmer frame could wreak havoc.

   Ref: [4]arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0609691: Experimental study of
   pedestrian counterflow in a corridor

   [5][arXivblog?i=Kj0VP4] 
   [6][arXivblog?i=YKbZgJ] [7][arXivblog?i=fbrl0J]
   [8][arXivblog?i=2WdcTj] [9][arXivblog?i=rApXGJ]
   [10][arXivblog?i=m5TK5j] [11][arXivblog?i=IwF3bJ]
   [12][arXivblog?i=OzcLuj] [13][arXivblog?i=cj81gJ] 
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References

   1. http://arxivblog.com/
   2. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/arXivblog/~3/325502859/
   3. http://arxivblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/walking.jpg
   4. http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0609691
   5. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/arXivblog?a=Kj0VP4
   6. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=YKbZgJ
   7. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=fbrl0J
   8. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=2WdcTj
   9. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=rApXGJ
  10. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=m5TK5j
  11. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=IwF3bJ
  12. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=OzcLuj
  13. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/arXivblog?a=cj81gJ
  14. http://arxivblog.com/
  15. http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailunsub?id=8632699&key=kesJ612ZsV
  16. http://feeds.feedburner.com/arXivblog
  17. http://feeds.feedburner.com/arXivblog

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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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