Quantitative analysis of pedestrian counterflow in a cellular automaton model

TL;DR

This paper quantitatively analyzes bidirectional pedestrian flow in a cellular automaton model, introducing an order parameter to distinguish phases like free flow, lanes, and gridlock, and proposes an anticipation mechanism to reduce jamming.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative phase diagram for pedestrian counterflow using an order parameter and proposes an anticipation mechanism to mitigate gridlock.

Findings

Identified four distinct states: free flow, disorder, lanes, gridlock.

Lanes have a characteristic density despite fluctuations.

Anticipation mechanism reduces gridlock compared to basic model.

Abstract

Pedestrian dynamics exhibits various collective phenomena. Here we study bidirectional pedestrian flow in a floor field cellular automaton model. Under certain conditions, lane formation is observed. Although it has often been studied qualitatively, e.g., as a test for the realism of a model, there are almost no quantitative results, neither empirically nor theoretically. As basis for a quantitative analysis we introduce an order parameter which is adopted from the analysis of colloidal suspensions. This allows to determine a phase diagram for the system where four different states (free flow, disorder, lanes, gridlock) can be distinguished. Although the number of lanes formed is fluctuating, lanes are characterized by a typical density. It is found that the basic floor field model overestimates the tendency towards a gridlock compared to experimental bounds. Therefore an anticipation mechanism is introduced which reduces the jamming probability.