Claudio Feliciani

This paper presents an experimental study on pedestrian bidirectional streams and the mechanisms leading to spontaneous lane formation by examining the flow formed by two groups of people walking toward each other in a mock corridor. Flow ratio is changed by changing each group size while maintaining comparable total flow and density. By tracking the trajectories of each pedestrian and analyzing the data obtained, five different phases were recognized as contributing to the transition from unidi

Crowd accidents – defined as situations where mass gatherings of people lead to deaths or injuries – have become a frequent occurrence on a global scale. Given the recurring nature of these accidents, it is essential that their characteristics are analyzed. To this end, an important step would be documenting these records. Here, a database of crowd accidents is developed for the period of 1900–2019 through a comprehensive investigation of the press and media reports. The analyses focus mainly on

Although some experimental evidence showed that an obstacle placed in front of a door allows making people's evacuations faster, the efficacy of such a solution has been debated for over 15 years. Researchers are split between those who found the obstacle beneficial and those who could not find a significant difference without it. One of the reasons for the several conclusions lies in the variety of the experiments performed so far, both in terms of competitiveness among participants, geometrica

In this work, we investigate properties of bidirectional pedestrian streams by studying different experimental datasets from multiple authors. Through the comparison of a scenario where lanes naturally form with two others where lane formation is either obstructed or facilitated, we show the relationship of different pedestrian quantities in regard to the flow ratio (or directional split). On this scope, two measures to account for the degree of congestion and self-organization are introduced. T

A model accounting for collisions on unsignalized crosswalks is presented.

This paper presents a model to simulate non-signalized pedestrian crosswalks. Principal scope is to develop a tool to be used by decision-makers to evaluate the necessity of introducing a new crosswalk and/or switching to a traffic light and estimate the potential benefits of such a measure in terms of Level of Service. The model is based on empirical evidence gained during an observation of a non-signalized crosswalk. Pedestrian motion is simulated using a Cellular Automata model which is capab

This study focuses on social pedestrian groups in public spaces and makes an effort to identify the type of social relation between the group members. As a first step for this identification problem, we focus on dyads (i.e. 2 people groups). Moreover, as a mutually exclusive categorization of social relations, we consider the domain-based approach of Bugental, which precisely corresponds to social relations of colleagues, couples, friends and families, and identify each dyad with one of those re

This article presents an empirical investigation for the phenomenon of deadlock formation by analyzing a pedestrian bidirectional flow of a subway station in central Tokyo. Using video images obtained from cameras placed in the station during morning rush hour, the in- and outflow (making up the total flow) resulting in a test section considered were computed. With the use of additional information such as train arrival times, test section density and its flow ratio, the formation of different c

Improvements in the design of pedestrian facilities have reduced the frequency of crowd accidents, and safety is now generally ensured in well-planned crowd events. However, congestion and inefficient use of infrastructures still remain an issue. To guarantee comfort and reduce close contacts between people, there are circumstances when crowd density may have to be reduced well below safety limits. Although research has given a lot of attention to extreme scenarios, methods to improve non-critic

In this study, an alternative method to estimate velocity and density in pedestrian crowds is presented. The proposed approach uses angular velocity and acceleration measurements obtained from inertial sensors to judge amount of body motion and therefore estimate walking velocity. Taking into consideration practical aspects, commercial devices (generic tablets and smartphones) are used to measure inertial quantities showing application potentials but also limitations in regard to accuracy. Sever