A well-motivated model of pedestrian dynamics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dynamic motivation model for pedestrian movement that accounts for fluctuating individual drive based on psychological expectancy-value theory, improving the realism of crowd simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel, psychologically grounded model where motivation evolves over time, influencing multiple movement parameters and better matching observed crowd behaviors.

Findings

The model produces structured heterogeneity in crowd positioning near bottlenecks.

Simulations replicate patterns of spatial organization observed in real experiments.

Dynamic motivation leads to differentiated positioning, absent in static models.

Abstract

In pedestrian dynamics, the internal drive that propels individuals toward their goals is typically captured by a single, fixed parameter, the desired walking speed. This simplification overlooks that motivation fluctuates in response to changing spatial and social conditions within a crowd. This paper proposes a dynamic motivation model grounded in expectancy-value theory from psychology, in which each agent's motivation evolves over time depending on proximity to the goal, relative position among other pedestrians, and individual goal importance. The resulting motivation modulates multiple movement parameters simultaneously, including walking speed, gap-closing behavior, and interpersonal spacing. The model is evaluated in simulated pre-bottleneck waiting scenarios using paired statistical comparisons across multiple random seeds and population sizes, and compared with trajectory data from the CROMA concert-entry bottleneck experiments under low- and high-motivation framings. Simulations show that the dynamic model produces structured heterogeneity in the crowd: agents self-organize into differentiated positions near the bottleneck, with those closer to the front occupying less space, a pattern absent in the static baseline but clearly present in the experimental data. These findings suggest that motivation in crowds should be understood not as a uniform increase in urgency, but as a mechanism that reorganizes competitive positioning along spatial and social axes. Future work should extend the framework to open-door throughput scenarios, larger populations, and richer social interactions such as group cohesion and cooperative strategies.