IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v122y2019icp51-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When ‘push’ does not come to ‘shove’: Revisiting ‘faster is slower’ in collective egress of human crowds

Author

Listed:
  • Haghani, Milad
  • Sarvi, Majid
  • Shahhoseini, Zahra

Abstract

We revisit the assumption stating that greater levels of rush in pedestrians’ collective egress through narrow bottlenecks impedes the discharge process and makes it slower, commonly known as the ‘faster-is-slower’ phenomenon. The question is of great practical significance because it ultimately can translate into whether crowds of evacuees should be dissuaded from rushing at bottlenecks in order to minimise their evacuation time. Yet, there is a large mixture of evidence on this phenomenon in the existing literature. Here, we re-examine this assumption based on empirical tests with an aim to identify explanations for these discrepancies. Our experiments were conducted with a crowd of 114 individuals, under varying doorway widths (ranging from 60 cm to 120 cm) and under three different levels of (non-aggressive) rush/competitiveness. Under our most competitive condition, crowd density behind the exit frequently exceeded 8 ped/m2 and even reached 9 ped/m2, as may be observed in a real case of egress under severe time constraint. This elevated level of crowd pressure and competitiveness, however, never translated in slower egress even for the narrowest exit. Based on every relevant measure of movement efficiency and regardless of the door width, faster was invariably faster. Discharge rates were larger, time headways between successive exits were smaller and evacuation times were shorter when individuals pushed more intensely (compared to more orderly types of conduct). We also observed that pedestrians exited in bursts and that the burst sizes were bigger under the greater levels of rush. Overall, all measurements indicated that for moderately large crowds, as long as the competitiveness does not amount to dangerous physical pressure, and as long as individuals do not display ‘explicit’ or ‘aggressive’ forms of pushing (i.e. as long as ‘push’ does not come to ‘shove’), rushing per se does not prolong the discharge process, rather it shortens the collective discharge. A contrast between these observations and previous experiments in earlier studies indicates that the presence or absence of ‘explicit’ or ‘aggressive’ shoving in the crowd could possibly be a major determinant of faster being slower or faster. This study suggests that the ‘faster-is-slower’ term, although very common in the literature, might be an overly simplistic terminology that does not offer adequate neuance for describing a rather complex phenomenon. To determine whether faster is slower or faster, one may need to break the question down into more details and view it through context-specific influential factors such as ‘the nature of pushing’, ‘the size of the crowd behind the bottleneck’, or 'the physical characteristics of the door'. We particularly suggest that another possible factor in determining when faster is slower or faster could potentially be the ‘crowd size’, a dimension that could be systematically investigated by future studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Haghani, Milad & Sarvi, Majid & Shahhoseini, Zahra, 2019. "When ‘push’ does not come to ‘shove’: Revisiting ‘faster is slower’ in collective egress of human crowds," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 51-69.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:122:y:2019:i:c:p:51-69
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2019.02.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096585641831111X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2019.02.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim, Kyung Min & Hong, Sung-Pil & Ko, Suk-Joon & Kim, Dowon, 2015. "Does crowding affect the path choice of metro passengers?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 292-304.
    2. Zahra Shahhoseini & Majid Sarvi, 2017. "Collective movements of pedestrians: How we can learn from simple experiments with non-human (ant) crowds," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-20, August.
    3. Nagao, Koki & Yanagisawa, Daichi & Nishinari, Katsuhiro, 2018. "Estimation of crowd density applying wavelet transform and machine learning," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 510(C), pages 145-163.
    4. Dirk Helbing & Illés Farkas & Tamás Vicsek, 2000. "Simulating dynamical features of escape panic," Nature, Nature, vol. 407(6803), pages 487-490, September.
    5. Guo, Ren-Yong & Huang, Hai-Jun & Wong, S.C., 2012. "Route choice in pedestrian evacuation under conditions of good and zero visibility: Experimental and simulation results," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 669-686.
    6. Sebastian Seriani & Taku Fujiyama & Catherine Holloway, 2017. "Exploring the pedestrian level of interaction on platform conflict areas at metro stations by real-scale laboratory experiments," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 100-118, January.
    7. Hänseler, Flurin S. & Lam, William H.K. & Bierlaire, Michel & Lederrey, Gael & Nikolić, Marija, 2017. "A dynamic network loading model for anisotropic and congested pedestrian flows," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 149-168.
    8. Tanimoto, Jun & Hagishima, Aya & Tanaka, Yasukaka, 2010. "Study of bottleneck effect at an emergency evacuation exit using cellular automata model, mean field approximation analysis, and game theory," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(24), pages 5611-5618.
    9. Shahhoseini, Zahra & Sarvi, Majid, 2019. "Pedestrian crowd flows in shared spaces: Investigating the impact of geometry based on micro and macro scale measures," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 57-87.
    10. Robin, Th. & Antonini, G. & Bierlaire, M. & Cruz, J., 2009. "Specification, estimation and validation of a pedestrian walking behavior model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 36-56, January.
    11. Armin Seyfried & Oliver Passon & Bernhard Steffen & Maik Boltes & Tobias Rupprecht & Wolfram Klingsch, 2009. "New Insights into Pedestrian Flow Through Bottlenecks," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(3), pages 395-406, August.
    12. Hughes, Roger L., 2002. "A continuum theory for the flow of pedestrians," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 507-535, July.
    13. Tajima, Yusuke & Nagatani, Takashi, 2002. "Clogging transition of pedestrian flow in T-shaped channel," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 303(1), pages 239-250.
    14. Guo, Ren-Yong, 2014. "Simulation of spatial and temporal separation of pedestrian counter flow through a bottleneck," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 415(C), pages 428-439.
    15. Hoogendoorn, S. P. & Bovy, P. H. L., 2004. "Pedestrian route-choice and activity scheduling theory and models," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 169-190, February.
    16. Lin, Peng & Ma, Jian & Liu, Tianyang & Ran, Tong & Si, Youliang & Li, Tao, 2016. "An experimental study of the “faster-is-slower” effect using mice under panic," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 452(C), pages 157-166.
    17. Antonini, Gianluca & Bierlaire, Michel & Weber, Mats, 2006. "Discrete choice models of pedestrian walking behavior," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 667-687, September.
    18. Cornes, F.E. & Frank, G.A. & Dorso, C.O., 2017. "High pressures in room evacuation processes and a first approach to the dynamics around unconscious pedestrians," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 484(C), pages 282-298.
    19. Jin, Cheng-Jie & Jiang, Rui & Wei, Wei & Li, Dawei & Guo, Ning, 2018. "Microscopic events under high-density condition in uni-directional pedestrian flow experiment," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 506(C), pages 237-247.
    20. Haghani, Milad & Sarvi, Majid, 2018. "Hypothetical bias and decision-rule effect in modelling discrete directional choices," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 361-388.
    21. Harri Ehtamo & Simo Heliövaara & Timo Korhonen & Simo Hostikka, 2010. "Game Theoretic Best-Response Dynamics For Evacuees' Exit Selection," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(01), pages 113-134.
    22. Haghani, Milad & Sarvi, Majid, 2018. "Crowd behaviour and motion: Empirical methods," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 253-294.
    23. Nicolas, Alexandre & Bouzat, Sebastián & Kuperman, Marcelo N., 2017. "Pedestrian flows through a narrow doorway: Effect of individual behaviours on the global flow and microscopic dynamics," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 30-43.
    24. Fernández, Rodrigo & Valencia, Alejandra & Seriani, Sebastian, 2015. "On passenger saturation flow in public transport doors," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 102-112.
    25. Serge P. Hoogendoorn & W. Daamen, 2005. "Pedestrian Behavior at Bottlenecks," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(2), pages 147-159, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gao, Dong Li & Xie, Wei & Ming Lee, Eric Wai, 2022. "Individual-level exit choice behaviour under uncertain risk," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 604(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Shuaian & Zhang, Wei & Qu, Xiaobo, 2018. "Trial-and-error train fare design scheme for addressing boarding/alighting congestion at CBD stations," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 318-335.
    2. Shahhoseini, Zahra & Sarvi, Majid, 2019. "Pedestrian crowd flows in shared spaces: Investigating the impact of geometry based on micro and macro scale measures," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 57-87.
    3. Haghani, Milad, 2021. "The knowledge domain of crowd dynamics: Anatomy of the field, pioneering studies, temporal trends, influential entities and outside-domain impact," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 580(C).
    4. Milad Haghani & Majid Sarvi & Zahra Shahhoseini & Maik Boltes, 2016. "How Simple Hypothetical-Choice Experiments Can Be Utilized to Learn Humans’ Navigational Escape Decisions in Emergencies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-24, November.
    5. Haghani, Milad & Sarvi, Majid, 2018. "Crowd behaviour and motion: Empirical methods," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 253-294.
    6. Abdelghany, Ahmed & Abdelghany, Khaled & Mahmassani, Hani, 2016. "A hybrid simulation-assignment modeling framework for crowd dynamics in large-scale pedestrian facilities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 159-176.
    7. Ziyou Gao & Yunchao Qu & Xingang Li & Jiancheng Long & Hai-Jun Huang, 2014. "Simulating the Dynamic Escape Process in Large Public Places," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(6), pages 1344-1357, December.
    8. Yamamoto, Hiroki & Yanagisawa, Daichi & Feliciani, Claudio & Nishinari, Katsuhiro, 2019. "Body-rotation behavior of pedestrians for collision avoidance in passing and cross flow," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 486-510.
    9. Hänseler, Flurin S. & Bierlaire, Michel & Farooq, Bilal & Mühlematter, Thomas, 2014. "A macroscopic loading model for time-varying pedestrian flows in public walking areas," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 60-80.
    10. Liu, Yixue & Mao, Zhanli, 2022. "An experimental study on the critical state of herd behavior in decision-making of the crowd evacuation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 595(C).
    11. Zhou, Zi-Xuan & Nakanishi, Wataru & Asakura, Yasuo, 2021. "Route choice in the pedestrian evacuation: Microscopic formulation based on visual information," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 562(C).
    12. Li, Maosheng & Shu, Panpan & Xiao, Yao & Wang, Pu, 2021. "Modeling detour decision combined the tactical and operational layer based on perceived density," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 574(C).
    13. Sun, Lishan & Luo, Wei & Yao, Liya & Qiu, Shi & Rong, Jian, 2017. "A comparative study of funnel shape bottlenecks in subway stations," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 14-27.
    14. Tian, Huan-huan & Wei, Yan-fang & Dong, Li-yun & Xue, Yu & Zheng, Rong-sen, 2018. "Resolution of conflicts in cellular automaton evacuation model with the game-theory," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 503(C), pages 991-1006.
    15. Hänseler, Flurin S. & Bierlaire, Michel & Scarinci, Riccardo, 2016. "Assessing the usage and level-of-service of pedestrian facilities in train stations: A Swiss case study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 106-123.
    16. von Sivers, Isabella & Köster, Gerta, 2015. "Dynamic stride length adaptation according to utility and personal space," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 104-117.
    17. Xianing Wang & Zhan Zhang & Ying Wang & Jun Yang & Linjun Lu, 2022. "A Study on Safety Evaluation of Pedestrian Flows Based on Partial Impact Dynamics by Real-Time Data in Subway Stations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-19, August.
    18. Mohammed Mahmod Shuaib, 2016. "Modeling the Pedestrian Ability of Detecting Lanes and Lane Changing Behavior," Modern Applied Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(7), pages 1-1, July.
    19. Xu, Xin-yue & Liu, Jun & Li, Hai-ying & Jiang, Man, 2016. "Capacity-oriented passenger flow control under uncertain demand: Algorithm development and real-world case study," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 130-148.
    20. Guo, Ren-Yong, 2014. "Simulation of spatial and temporal separation of pedestrian counter flow through a bottleneck," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 415(C), pages 428-439.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:122:y:2019:i:c:p:51-69. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.