Sciber

"Push, shout, or politely excuse yourself all you want, but those slowpokes in your way just won't budge. A new study shows a long-neglected reason why: Up to 70% of people in crowds socially glue themselves into groups of two or more, slowing down traffic. What's worse, as crowds gets denser, groups bend into anti-aerodynamic shapes that exacerbate the problem." Full news report @ ScienceNOW.

Full Article:

Moussaïd M, Perozo N, Garnier S, Helbing D, Theraulaz G [2010]. "The Walking Behaviour of Pedestrian Social Groups and Its Impact on Crowd Dynamics". PLoS ONE 5(4): e10047.

Labels: complexity, modeling