Individual locomotor bias drives counterclockwise motion in pedestrian crowds
7 hours ago
- #pedestrian dynamics
- #collective behavior
- #locomotor bias
- This study challenges the traditional view that collective counterclockwise (CCW) motion in pedestrian crowds emerges from social dynamics, showing instead that it originates from individual locomotor biases.
- Five experimental campaigns conducted in Spain and Japan demonstrate that CCW bias is robust across diverse settings, including confined arenas, open schoolyards, and nursery schools, consistently yielding positive polarization values.
- Findings rule out explanations based on pedestrian–boundary interactions, avoidance maneuvers linked to handedness or cultural walking norms (e.g., right-side stepping in Spain vs. left-side in Japan), and social or learned influences.
- Analysis of individual motion, including experiments with solitary walkers, confirms that CCW bias persists at the individual level and is not significantly influenced by handedness, footedness, eye dominance, or sex.
- The study suggests that intrinsic, biologically rooted tendencies—rather than collective interactions or social norms—drive the widespread CCW bias in human locomotion, with implications for crowd management and urban planning.