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Simulating dynamical features of escape panic

Nature volume 407, pages 487–490 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

One of the most disastrous forms of collective human behaviour is the kind of crowd stampede induced by panic, often leading to fatalities as people are crushed or trampled. Sometimes this behaviour is triggered in life-threatening situations such as fires in crowded buildings1,2; at other times, stampedes can arise during the rush for seats3,4 or seemingly without cause. Although engineers are finding ways to alleviate the scale of such disasters, their frequency seems to be increasing with the number and size of mass events2,5. But systematic studies of panic behaviour6,7,8,9 and quantitative theories capable of predicting such crowd dynamics5,10,11,12 are rare. Here we use a model of pedestrian behaviour to investigate the mechanisms of (and preconditions for) panic and jamming by uncoordinated motion in crowds. Our simulations suggest practical ways to prevent dangerous crowd pressures. Moreover, we find an optimal strategy for escape from a smoke-filled room, involving a mixture of individualistic behaviour and collective ‘herding’ instinct.

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Figure 1: Simulation of pedestrians moving with identical desired velocity v0i = v0 towards the 1-m-wide exit of a room of size 15 m × 15 m.
Figure 2: Simulation of an escape route with a wider area.
Figure 3: Simulation of N = 90 pedestrians trying to escape a smoky room of area A = 15 m × 15 m (grey) through two invisible doors of 1.5 m width.

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Acknowledgements

D.H. thanks the German Research Foundation (DFG) for financial support by a Heisenberg scholarship. T.V. and I.F. are grateful for partial support by OTKA and FKFP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collegium Budapest–Institute for Advanced Study, Szentháromság u. 2, Budapest, H-1014, Hungary

    Dirk Helbing & Tamás Vicsek

  2. Institute for Economics and Traffic, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, D-01062, Germany

    Dirk Helbing

  3. Department of Biological Physics Eötvös University, Pázmány Péter Sétány 1A, Budapest, H-1117, Hungary

    Illés Farkas & Tamás Vicsek

Authors
  1. Dirk Helbing
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Correspondence to Dirk Helbing.

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Helbing, D., Farkas, I. & Vicsek, T. Simulating dynamical features of escape panic. Nature 407, 487–490 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35035023

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