Can pedestrian simulation tools really model humans accurately?
Share
Pedestrian simulation software plays a big part in making our lives easier. As our cities and transport networks became ever more complex, and our festivals, concerts and sporting events got bigger, keeping us moving freely and safely became one of the biggest challenges facing planners. Now, of course, managing proximity and how we move adds another level of complexity.
Understanding and predicting the pedestrian movement and the resulting crowd flows is a critical part of the design, planning and day-to-day operations of any infrastructure or event, and pedestrian simulation software like Oasys MassMotion provides the tools planners need. The recent addition of proximity modelling tools is helping to manage and phase the safe reopening of facilities after lockdowns.
So how does pedestrian simulation work and how realistic can its predictions be? We asked Yogin Doolab, a consultant on the Oasys MassMotion team to give us an idea of how pedestrian modelling works.
Yogin explained that the roots of understanding pedestrian dynamics go back decades, to work by architects understanding crowds moving as fluids, to studies of evacuation and safety. A quantum leap in our understanding was the idea of Level of Service (LOS), first conceived by John Fruin in the 1960s. Fruin had realised that the best measure of the effectiveness of a potential route was not how fast individuals travelled but how many passed a given point per minute: the relationship between density and speed isn't a simple linear one and Fruin's studies showed us how this happens (there is actually a sweet point at which greater density doesn't actually slow the crowd down, but add just a few more people and there will soon be congestion!). Using the Level of Service (LOS) concept, which can be thought of as a measure of how big a group can get before movement is restricted, we can start to predict how individual pedestrians will move in a crowd.
Being able to translate this learning into a scientific understanding of movement was the next key step to modelling crowds accurately. In the 1990s, a combination of additional research and advances in computing power made this feasible. Dirk Helbing and Peter Molnar introduced the social forces model in 1995. They developed a system that represented the multiple interactions between individuals, objects, etc. They called these interactions social forces and showed how they guided the behaviour of an individual when moving in and amongst other people.
Since then, there have been many research studies conducted to determine with greater precision how people behave and choose the path they will take to get to their destination, be it getting through a ticket barrier or reaching the burger bar at a concert.
A valid and accurate pedestrian modelling technique should be able to model most, if not all aspects of pedestrian movement. For example, the software should be able to simulate how pedestrians enter/exit a given space, what happens when they meet people coming the other way around a corner, and how they react to the dynamically changing crowd density around them. It should reveal where crossflows and counter-flows might give rise to problems, and it should also be able to model random sporadic human behaviour as well.
Not surprisingly, humans being what they are, attempts to refine an existing model or introduce a new one always seems to leave a gap. So, the honest answer to Can pedestrian simulation software model human behaviour 100% accurately? is that it cannot - but it is getting pretty close and engineers and planners around the world do have confidence in the insights it offers. For example, at Beijing's new jewel-in-the-crown Daxing airport, for example, MassMotion showed how simply adding an extra escalator to the design would reduce bottlenecks at the main entrance.
Agent-based simulation tools such as Oasys MassMotion use the social forces model in combination with LOS and then also add additional data provided by the user to replicate human behaviour to the best of its ability. Additional data might be transport timetables or concert and interval times to predict peaks and troughs in footfall traffic or actual observations taken in the field to give a better understanding of how people are likely to approach a building.
With added features like action sets (sequences such as passing ticket desks, automated barriers or security) , agent profiles (age, mobility, cultural preference to walk on one side of the road, etc) and MassMotion's software development kit (SDK) to enable users to add new project-specific features, a user is able to customize their simulation. In addition, the MassMotion development team currently has an active research program on how to incorporate real-time data into the software to increase accuracy and enable managers to react to emerging situations like congestion caused by a faulty escalator.
With technology advances and the rapid development of artificial intelligence and machine learning, it shouldn't be long until pedestrian modelling tools will indeed be able to predict and analyse any kind of human behaviour, and give us fast answers on how to avoid discomfort, danger and congestion.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
12/06/2026
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
Can pedestrian simulation tools really model humans accurately? 
