An Innovative Scenario for Pedestrian Data Collection: The Observation of an Admission Test at the University of Milano-Bicocca

Abstract

The investigation of crowd dynamics is a complex field of study that involves different types of knowledge and skills. Due to the difficulty in reaching an exhaustive definition of the notion of crowd, we propose to analytically inves- tigate this phenomenon focusing on pedestrian dynamics in medium-high density situations, and, in particular, on proxemic behavior of walking groups. In this work we will present several results collected during the observation of the incoming pedestrian flows to an admission test at the University of Milano-Bicocca. In particular, we collected empirical data about: level of density and service, spatial arrangement, composition (size, gender) and walking speed of groups. The analysis of video footages of the event showed that unexpectedly a large majority of the incoming flow was composed of groups, and that group size significantly affects walking speed.