Experimental study of pedestrian counterflow in a corridor

Abstract

In this work the results of a pedestrian counterflow experiment in a corridor of a width of 2 meter are presented. 67 participants were divided into two groups with varying relative and absolute size and walked in opposite direction through a corridor. The video footage taken from the experiment was evaluated for passing times, walking speeds, fluxes and lane-formation including symmetry breaking. The results include comparatively large fluxes and speeds as well as a maximal asymmetry between left- and right-hand traffic. The sum of flow and counterflow in any case turns out to be larger than the flow in all situations without counterflow.Comment: accepted for publication in "Journal of Statistical Mechanics: theory and experiment" (JSTAT