Transport Models for Collective Dynamics in Biological Systems

Traffic models for pedestrian and their comparison with experimental data

Sébastien Motsch

University of Maryland

Understanding the various factors which determine pedestrian flow efficiency is an important societal issue (e.g. traffic safety, optimization of traffic flow). With this aim, a simple traffic flow model is constructed and calibrated on the basis of experimental recordings. The novelty of the model relies on the introduction of a two direction flow depending on co and counter-moving pedestrians. A comparison between data and model is performed and we observe a good agreement for the apparition of clusters and traveling bands. However, some discrepancies are observed, which are due to the inhomogeneities of the pedestrians comfort walking speeds. To account for these inhomogeneities, we propose an extension of the model (model of second order) which improves the agreement with the experimental data.