Narrow Results

In this paper, we introduce and study one-dimensional models for the behavior of pedestrians in a narrow street or corridor. We begin at the microscopic level by formulating a stochastic cellular automata model with explicit rules for pedestrians moving in two opposite directions. Coarse-grained mesoscopic and macroscopic analogs are derived leading to the coupled system of PDEs for the density of the pedestrian traffic. The obtained first-order system of conservation laws is only conditionally hyperbolic. We also derive higher-order nonlinear diffusive corrections resulting in a parabolic macroscopic PDE model. Numerical experiments comparing and contrasting the behavior of the microscopic stochastic model and the resulting coarse-grained PDEs for various parameter settings and initial conditions are performed. These numerical experiments demonstrate that the nonlinear diffusion is essential for reproducing the behavior of the stochastic system in the nonhyperbolic regime.

Pedestrian queues like those observed at ticket counters or supermarket checkouts are usually described by classical queueing theory. However, models like the M/M/1 queue neglect the internal structure (density profile) of the queue by focussing on the system length as the only dynamical variable. This is different in the Exclusive Queueing Process (EQP) in which the queue is considered on a microscopic level. It is equivalent to a Totally Asymmetric Exclusion Process (TASEP) of varying length. The EQP has a surprisingly rich phase diagram with respect to the arrival probability α and the service probability β. The behavior on the phase transition line is much more complex than for the TASEP with a fixed system length. It is nonuniversal and depends strongly on the update procedure used. In this paper, we review the main properties of the EQP and its applications to pedestrian dynamics, vehicular traffic and biological systems. We also mention extensions of the EQP and some related models.