Modeling Urban Panic

Schneier is reporting that Arizona State University's Paul Torrens has been developing a computer simulation to model urban panic. "The goal of this project is to develop a reusable and behaviorally founded computer model of pedestrian movement and crowd behavior amid dense urban environments, to serve as a test-bed for experimentation." The simulation tests behaviors from how a crowd flees from a burning car to how a pathogen might be transmitted through a mobile pedestrian over time among others.

Comments

Re:You need a simulation for this?

[totally bogus dude]

In that case, they flee from the perceived danger zone, and then they stop to gawk. Also you normally don't find much of a "crowd" within a single vehicle, unless you're in S.A.

It's not so certain everyone inside the car would flee, in any case. For example, would Chuck Norris flee? I don't think so. Neither would MacGuyver.

Natalie Portman probably wouldn't flee either, but that's just because her grits are already so hot she wouldn't notice the heat from the fire. If she actually saw the flames, she'd simply be too petrified to move.