Simulation of crowd evacuation behaviour in outdoor public places - A model based on shanghai stampede

Abstract

The crowd motion in complex sites is a critical basis of analysing the law of crowd evacuation behaviour. However, few studies comprehensively considered the overall effect of pedestrians and the microscopic features of individuals. To find out the behavioural law of pedestrians in outdoor public places during evacuation, the simulation system proposed in this study utilized the measured geographic data of the Shanghai Bund where a serious stampede accident occurred on December 31. 2014. The behavioural parameters were first established including the pedestrian’s shoulder widths and walking speeds. Afterwards, the crowd motion in Shanghai Bund was simulated based on Pathfinder platform. Results show as the following: (1) there exist “walking-along-the-sides effect”', “imitation effect” and “non-optimal effect”' in the evacuation process; (2) the time of crowd evacuation varies according to physiological characteristics, movement trajectories, and destinations. These conclusions may provide recommendations for crowd evacuation in public places.