Experimental study on the movement strategies of individuals in multidirectional flows

Multidirectional flows are common phenomena in reality but have been little investigated before. To investigate pedestrian behaviors and movement strategies in multidirectional flows, a series of experiments were carried out under different densities and typical pedestrian behaviors like detour, acceleration, following, etc. were observed. A linear relation between the length of walk path and the number of pedestrians was obtained. Three strategies were classified to describe pedestrian movement: straight (least effort) strategy, straight to detour (non-least strategy) strategy and detour (non least strategy) strategy. From the experiment, more than 72% of pedestrians selected the straight strategy to reach their destinations. 8% - 17% pedestrians changed their initial straight strategy to detour strategy, which is related to the waiting time and the flow rate in the central area. Three strategies were compared with movement time and the length of walk path. These findings can be used to provide basics for simulation rules and parameters in multidirectional flows simulations and make evacuation plans according to different focuses in normal and emergency conditions. (C) Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.