Pedestrian-dynamics experiment: stadium evacuation

A recent experiment at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf to see how people leave stadiums. This is part of a project to develop an "evacuation assistant" that could make evacuations safer. Read the entire story -- I'm a football fan...get me out of here -- at http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/43033

Video courtesy of Hermes, a project funded by the German government's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Hermes
• pedestrian dynamics
• physics
• BMBF
• German government
• JSC
• Julich Supercomputing Centre
• crowd safety
• simulation model
• particle
• people
• Esprit arena Dusseldorf
• Fortuna

[henriok]

So you propose NOT to do simulations like this as to figure out the crowd dynamics while exiting large venues to come up with optimal procedure for evacuation and then educate visitors as to best get out of an arena when catastrophe strikes? Sounds like a great plan you have there.

[binhpac]

This simulation is a joke. In a real danger case like the one at the love parade at least half of the people would jump over the seats and look for another exit. That is why these simulations are a joke. The people don't act like they are in real danger. They don't PANIC like in real life.

Look for instance at the love parade. Nobody just waits in line so everyone can go one by one out. People panic and people jump over seats or run/looking for other exits. This simulation is a science joke!

[tjebbe44]

As URLs in the comment seem not to be allowed here, it gives unexplained errors... the context in which I refer to this Hermes research can be found at the WordPpress Blog The Limping Messenger; 24 July 2010; article "MASSE MENSCH GERMANY: FROM LOVE PARADE TO LOVE STAMPEDE or how love was lost in a crowd"

[tjebbe44]

FROM LOVE PARADE TO LOVE STAMPEDE 19 death and 350 wounded in a traffic tunnel in Duisburg/Germany The logistic management of human bodies for crowds beyond one hundred thousand people is a science still in its infancy. See

there is a second level of meaning when crowds are simulated as if individual humans are nothing more than particles in a calculation model...

[DeepwaterCrimes]

HALLELUJAH...!!!