Zahmah social force model for pedestrian movement

The Social Force Model is one of the well-known approaches that could successfully simulate pedestrian’s movement realistically. However, it is not suitable to simulate a complex pedestrian movement. Hence, this research proposed a novel model which improved the Social Force Model for simulating high density crowd such as Tawaf. Tawaf is an Islamic ritual, which requires agents to encircle the Kaabah. This ritual has been complex yet unique, due to its capacity, density, and various demographic backgrounds of the agents. A certain set of rules that must be followed by each agent, which introduces anomalies in the flow around the Kaabah. The agents also will be assigned with unique attributes such as; gender, walking speed and intention outlook to make the simulations more realistic. The findings of this research will contribute to the simulation activities of pedestrians in a highly dense population

Experimental archeology and serious games: challenges of inhabiting virtual heritage

Experimental archaeology has long yielded valuable insights into the tools and techniques that featured in past peoples’ relationship with the material world around them. However, experimental archaeology has, hitherto, confined itself to rigid, empirical and quantitative questions. This paper applies principles of experimental archaeology and serious gaming tools in the reconstructions of a British Iron Age Roundhouse. The paper explains a number of experiments conducted to look for quantitative differences in movement in virtual vs material environments using both “virtual” studio reconstruction as well as material reconstruction. The data from these experiments was then analysed to look for differences in movement which could be attributed to artefacts and/or environments. The paper explains the structure of the experiments, how the data was generated, what theories may make sense of the data, what conclusions have been drawn and how serious gaming tools can support the creation of new experimental heritage environments

Towards an electric bike level of service

The fast-growing market of electric bikes (e-bikes) has introduced a paradigm shift in mobility with a promise to enhance the sustainability agenda. An in-depth understanding of transport quality of service (QOS) from the e-bike rider’s perspective is a promising approach to sustain the role of the e-bike in mobility. Level of service (LOS) is a method by which to quantify QOS for different transport modes. However, to date, the knowledge on e-bike LOS (ELOS) lags far behind that on other transport modes. Therefore, the central aim of this thesis is to provide fundamental knowledge related to the development of ELOS. To address the main aim of the thesis, the travel behaviour and riding characteristics associated with e-bikes were scrutinised. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to provide knowledge on the travel behaviour (strategical level) and riding characteristics (tactical level) related to e-bikes. From a strategic perspective, an extensive review of the literature was conducted to explore which transport mode LOS is applicable for developing ELOS. Based on the findings from the state of the art and the reviewed literature, bike LOS (BLOS) was deemed substantial for the development of ELOS. Thus, to move towards the development of ELOS, a set of studies was conducted to understand the comfort concerns of e-bike riders via the literature review, interviews and a field experiment. Based on the reviewed literature, it appears evident that research related to the travel behaviour of e-bike users is sparse and that the scale of e-bike substitution for other modes of transport is unclear. The findings of the aforementioned study led to the proposition of a preliminary theoretical framework for the development of ELOS and served as a roadmap for conducting the studies that followed. To provide a deeper understanding of the travel behaviour related to e-bikes, a qualitative study was conducted to explore e-bike users’ (riders) and nonusers’ comfort concerns. This study was extended to include the comfort and health concerns of e-bike users and nonusers in the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic situation. The findings of this study provided a set of e-bike riding comfort variables, such as infrastructure facilities and e-bike performance in both pre- and peri-pandemic situations. This study also documented the potential effect of e-bike substitution for other transport modes such as public transport and cars. From a tactical level of analysis, there was a lack of studies to facilitate understanding the riding characteristics associated with e-bikes, specifically where vulnerable road users are involved. To address this knowledge gap, the interaction between e-bike users and pedestrians was studied in an off-road facility experiment. The study was designed to evaluate whether the traffic characteristics of passing (same-direction) and meeting (opposite-direction) encounters impose different difficulties for the navigation of the e-bike rider in pedestrian crowds. The results suggested that passing events cause the e-bike rider more hindrance compared to meeting events. This study was further extended to investigate the sociodemographic characteristics of e-bike riders along with their characteristics of riding in traffic and eventually model e-bike riders’ comfort in pedestrian crowds. In sum, this thesis addresses the knowledge gaps related to e-bike comfort concerns based on different study setups, which can be used substantially for developing ELOS. Along with exploring e-bike riders’ comfort concerns, the thesis puts forward information related to e-bike nonusers in both pre- and peri-pandemic situations. The findings of the thesis are applicable for planners and policy-makers when integrating the role of e-bikes in mobility policies. At a general level, the findings of the studies presented in this thesis pave the way for developing future ELOS and highlight the dire need to develop the concept of ELOS based on different contexts. All in all, the thesis opens new avenues into the field of e-bike comfort modelling by rendering the importance of the subject as an independent mode of transport

Factors influencing experience in crowds – the participant perspective

Humans encounter crowd situations on a daily basis, resulting in both negative and positive experiences. Understanding how to optimise the participant experience of crowds is important. In the study presented in this paper, 5 focus groups were conducted (35 participants, age range: 21–71 years) and 55 crowd situations observed (e.g. transport hubs, sport events, retail situations). Influences on participant experience in crowds identified by the focus groups and observations included: physical design of crowd space and facilities (layout, queuing strategies), crowd movement (monitoring capacity, pedestrian flow), communication and information (signage, wayfinding), comfort and welfare (provision of facilities, environmental comfort), and public order. It was found that important aspects affecting participant experience are often not considered systematically in the planning of events or crowd situations. The findings point to human factors aspects of crowds being overlooked, with the experiences of participants often poor

Biomechanical Locomotion Heterogeneity in Synthetic Crowds

Synthetic crowd simulation combines rule sets at different conceptual layers to represent the dynamic nature of crowds while adhering to basic principles of human steering, such as collision avoidance and goal completion. In this dissertation, I explore synthetic crowd simulation at the steering layer using a critical approach to define the central theme of the work, the impact of model representation and agent diversity in crowds. At the steering layer, simulated agents make regular decisions, or actions, related to steering which are often responsible for the emergent behaviours found in the macro-scale crowd. Because of this bottom-up impact of a steering model's defining rule-set, I postulate that biomechanics and diverse biomechanics may alter the outcomes of dynamic synthetic-crowds-based outcomes. This would mean that an assumption of normativity and/or homogeneity among simulated agents and their mobility would provide an inaccurate representation of a scenario. If these results are then used to make real world decisions, say via policy or design, then those populations not represented in the simulated scenario may experience a lack of representation in the actualization of those decisions. A focused literature review shows that applications of both biomechanics and diverse locomotion representation at this layer of modelling are very narrow and often not present. I respond to the narrowness of this representation by addressing both biomechanics and heterogeneity separately. To address the question of performance and importance of locomotion biomechanics in crowd simulation, I use a large scale comparative approach. The industry standard synthetic crowd models are tested under a battery of benchmarks derived from prior work in comparative analysis of synthetic crowds as well as new scenarios derived from built environments. To address the question of the importance of heterogeneity in locomotion biomechanics, I define tiers of impact in the multi-agent crowds model at the steering layer--from the action space, to the agent space, to the crowds space. To this end, additional models and layers are developed to address the modelling and application of heterogeneous locomotion biomechanics in synthetic crowds. The results of both studies form a research arc which shows that the biomechanics in steering models provides important fidelity in several applications and that heterogeneity in the model of locomotion biomechanics directly impacts both qualitative and quantitative synthetic crowds outcomes. As well, systems, approaches, and pitfalls regarding the analysis of steering model and human mobility diversity are described

The user experience of crowds

This thesis is concerned with the user experience of crowds, incorporating issues of comfort, satisfaction, safety and performance within a given crowd situation. Factors that influence the organisation and monitoring of crowd events will be considered. A comprehensive review of the literature revealed that crowd safety, pedestrian flow modeling, public order policing and hooliganism prevention, has received the greatest attention with previous research on crowds. Whereas crowd performance, comfort and satisfaction has received less attention, particularly within spectator events (sporting and music for example). Original research undertaken for this doctoral thesis involved a series of studies: user focus groups, stakeholder interviews, and observational research within event security and organisation. Following on from these investigations, the findings have been integrated with a tool to assist crowd organisers and deliverers during the planning of crowd events, and accompanying user feedback interviews following use of the tool. The overarching aim of the research within this thesis was to explore the complex issues that contribute to the user experience of being in a crowd, and how this might be improved. The crowd user focus groups revealed differences in factors affecting crowd satisfaction, varying according to age and user expectations. Greater differences existed between crowd users, than across crowd situations, highlighting the importance of identifying expected crowd members when planning individual events. Additionally, venue design, organisation, safety and security concerns were found to highly affect crowd satisfaction, irrespective of group differences or crowd situations, showing the importance of these issues when considering crowd satisfaction for all crowd events, for any crowd members. Stakeholder interviews examining crowds from another perspective suggested that overall safety was a high priority due to legal obligations, in order to protect venue reputation. Whereas, comfort and satisfaction received less attention within the organisation of crowd events due to budget considerations, and a lack of concern as to the importance of such issues. Moreover, communication and management systems were sometimes inadequate to ensure compliance with internal procedures. In addition a lack of usable guidance was seen to be available to those responsible for organising crowd situations. Eleven themes were summarised from the data, placed in order of frequency of references to the issues: health and safety, public order, communication, physical environment, public relations, crowd movement, event capacity, facilities, satisfaction, comfort, and crowd characteristics. Results were in line with the weighting of the issues within the literature, with health and safety receiving the most attention, and comfort and satisfaction less attention. These results were used to form the basis of observational checklists for event observations across various crowd situations. Event observations took two forms: observing the role of public and private security, and observing crowd events from the user perspective. Observations within public and private security identified seven general themes: communication, anticipating crowd reaction, information, storage, training, role confusion, financial considerations and professionalism. Findings questioned the clarity of the differing roles of public and private security, and understanding of these differences. Also the increasing use of private over public security within crowd event security, and the differing levels of training and experience within public and private security were identified. Event observations identified fifteen common themes drawn from the data analysis: communication, public order, comfort, facilities, queuing systems, transportation, crowd movement, design, satisfaction, health and safety, public relations, event capacity, time constraints, encumbrances, and cultural differences. Key issues included the layout of the event venue together with the movement and monitoring of crowd users, as well as the availability of facilities in order to reduce competition between crowd users, together with possible links to maintaining public order and reducing anti-social behaviour during crowd events. Findings from the focus groups, interviews, and observations were then combined (to enhance the robustness of the findings), and developed into the Crowd Satisfaction Assessment Tool (CSAT) prototype, a practical tool for event organisers to use during the planning of crowd events. In order to assess proof of concept of the CSAT, potential users (event organisers) were recruited to use the CSAT during the planning of an event they were involved in organising. Semi-structured feedback interviews were then undertaken, to gain insight into the content, usefulness, and usability of the CSAT. Separately human factors researchers were recruited to review the CSAT, providing feedback on the layout and usability of the tool. Feedback interviews suggested the CSAT was a useful concept, aiding communication, and providing organisers with a systematic and methodical structure for planning ahead, prioritising ideas, and highlighting areas of concern. The CSAT was described as being clear and easy to follow, with clear aims, and clear instructions for completion, and was felt to aid communication between the various stakeholders involved in the organisation and management of an event, allowing information to be recorded, stored and shared between stakeholders, with the aim of preventing the loss of crucial information. The thesis concludes with a summary model of the factors that influence crowd satisfaction within crowd events of various descriptions. Key elements of this are the anticipation, facilities, and planning considered before an event, influences and monitoring during an event and reflection after an event. The relevance and impact of this research is to assist the planning of crowd events, with the overall aim of improving participant satisfaction during crowd events. From a business perspective the issue is important with competition between events, the desire to encourage return to events, and to increase profit for organisers. From an ergonomics perspective, there is the imperative of improving the performance of crowd organisers and the experience of crowd users

Physical crowds and psychological crowds: applying self-categorization theory to computer simulation of collective behaviour

Computer models are used to simulate pedestrian behaviour for safety at mass events. Previous research has indicated differences between physical crowds of co-present individuals, and psychological crowds who mobilise collective behaviour through a shared social identity. This thesis aimed to examine the assumptions models use about crowds, conduct two studies of crowd movement to ascertain the behavioural signatures of psychological crowds, and implement these into a theoretically-driven model of crowd behaviour. A systematic review of crowd modelling literature is presented which explores the assumptions about crowd behaviour being used in current models. This review demonstrates that models portray the crowd as either an identical mass with no inter-personal connections, unique individuals with no connections to others, or as small groups within a crowd. Thus, no models have incorporated the role of self-categorisation theory needed to simulate collective behaviour. The empirical research in this thesis aimed to determine the behavioural effects of self-categorisation on pedestrian movement. Findings from a first study illustrate that, in comparison to a physical crowd, perception of shared social identities in the psychological crowd motivated participants to maintain close proximity with ingroup members through regulation of their speed and distance walked. A second study showed that collective self-organisation seemed to be increased by the presence of an outgroup, causing ingroup members to tighten formation to avoid splitting up. Finally, a computer model is presented which implements the quantified behavioural effects of self-categorisation found in the behavioural studies. A self-categorisation parameter is introduced to simulate ingroup members self-organising to remain together. This is compared to a physical crowd simulation with group identities absent. The results demonstrate that the self-categorisation parameter provides more accurate simulation of psychological crowd behaviour. Thus, it is argued that models should implement self-categorisation into simulations of psychological crowds to increase safety at mass events

Social Stratification, Cultural Identities, and Politics of Leadership: The Consolidation of a National Culture at a Papua New Guinean University

This thesis explores how students and staff at a university in Papua New Guinea (PNG) experience processes of social stratification and differentiation. In particular, I describe and analyse how students and staff reflect on and enact reciprocal obligations to their kin, how different cultural identities are forged and strengthened at university, and how contemporary politics of leadership become manifest in student strikes. The thesis draws on eighteen months of fieldwork, centred at the University of Goroka in the PNG highlands, including stints at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, and visits to homes of students and staff in different provinces of the country. Archival research was also conducted in the Pacific Research Archives at the Australian National University and the Tuzin Archive for Melanesian Anthropology at the University of California San Diego. Through participant observation, life histories, interviews, and discourse analysis, in this thesis I explore how subjectivities shape and are shaped through experiences of social stratification and differentiation inherent to higher education, institutional politics and contests over styles of leadership, and how they link to broader aspects of a consolidating national culture in PNG today. Following introductory chapters that situate the thesis within concerns of regional anthropological scholarship and contextualise the history of higher education in PNG generally, and in Goroka in particular, ethnographic chapters are organised in two sections. The first section starts with the introduction of a number of life histories of students and staff at the university. I subsequently analyse the reflections and experiences of interlocutors through two different lenses. I first foreground putatively different sensibilities surrounding reciprocity and exchange across the PNG highlands, and then shift focus to analyse these articulations as emergent normative reifications of distinct cultural identities. The second ethnographic section provides a detailed account of a student strike, which I also analyse from two distinct vantage points. First, I focus on the strike as a deliberate harnessing of dynamics of emergent collectivities at the hand of strike leaders to advance their own political ambitions. In a second step, I foreground the perceived lack of recognition of students within the institutional hierarchy of the university, which from the perspective of students leaves few alternatives to the strike for making their grievances heard. In both ethnographic sections I thus follow a specific structure and analytical strategy of first foregrounding one angle of analysis that I subsequently seem to undermine through another angle of analysis. Through this analytical strategy, I wish to present these perspectives as complementary rather than mutually exclusive frames of understanding, as which they often tend to become mobilised in public debate. I thus enact an analytical strategy that mimics the reality of appropriate relating to kin and in institutional hierarchies that is the subject of this thesis: what are appropriate forms of action and relating depends on the perspective through which these are presented or enacted, yet these perspectives, in turn, are subject to challenge and negotiation through the ways specific actions are framed