@article{ref1,
title="Spontaneous synchronization of motion in pedestrian crowds of different densities",
journal="Nature human behaviour",
year="2021",
author="Ma, Yi and Yuen, Richard Kwok Kit and Shi, Meng and Lee, Eric Wai Ming",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="Interacting pedestrians in a crowd spontaneously adjust their footsteps and align their respective stepping phases. This self-organization phenomenon is known as  synchronization. However, it is unclear why and how synchronization forms  spontaneously under different density conditions, or what functional benefit  synchronization offers for the collective motion of humans. Here, we conducted a  single-file crowd motion experiment that directly tracked the alternating movement  of both legs of interacting pedestrians. We show that synchronization is most likely  to be triggered at the same density at which the flow rate of pedestrians reaches a  maximum value. We demonstrate that synchronization is established in response to an  insufficient safety distance between pedestrians, and that it enables pedestrians to  realize efficient collective stepping motion without the occurrence of inter-person  collisions. These findings provide insights into the collective motion behaviour of  humans and may have implications for understanding pedestrian  synchronization-induced wobbling, for example, of bridges.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2397-3374",
doi="10.1038/s41562-020-00997-3",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-00997-3"
}