Slashdot Mirror
Hajj Pilgrimage Safety Challenges Crowd Simulator Technology
agent elevator writes: In 2010, Saudi Arabia hosted an international design competition aimed at safely accommodating more pilgrims at Mecca's Grand Mosque. One of the participants told IEEE Spectrum that the crowd densities there (6 people per square meter) bogged down off-the-shelf software so badly that simulation run times were about 10 to 20 times slower than real time crowd movement. Nevertheless, he found some workarounds that gave designers a plan to double the Grand Mosque's peak visitor rate from 40,000 to 102,000 people per hour. Last week's stampede took place well away from the mosque, but signals sent to pilgrims telling them when to speed up or slow down could help prevent such a tragedy, the crowd simulation expert said.
Other engineers are turning to fuzzy logic as way to predict how crowds will react in a panic.
Can we simulate safely co-existing with a violent, barbaric religion that glamorizes death?
Didn't Allah will those people to get trampled? Why would they contradict Allah's will?
If they have no problem trampling on people, why would they have a problem with ignoring a computer telling them to speed up or slow down?
They trampled people trying to pay homage to a prophet who said things like, "don't treat women like cattle" and "look after the poor; even non Muslim poor"
Here we trample people so we can buy 29 dollar movie players.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Perhaps a better solution would be to increase the time window for this event- spread the crowd over a few months instead of a few days.
You're trying to find a logical solution to a religious problem. That works so rarely that people are almost aghast when a Sikh removes his turban and uses it to stop the bleeding from a bullet wound on a child.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Did I say Christianity was any better? I don't care what the age of consent "laws" say, any civilized culture will not allow 9 year olds to be banged, especially by those who are considered "holy". But then again, sky friends and child molestation seem to go hand in hand.
Monstar L
As long as the humans still behave like pack animals, and as long as the designated gathering venues such as Mecca fail to expand to accommodate the vastly increase number of participants, you can count on even worse disasters to happen
That's why you shouldn't fence them in. The problem starts when you block the path. Just put the whole damn thing out in the open where people can move.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Perhaps a better solution would be to increase the time window for this event- spread the crowd over a few months instead of a few days.
Perhaps a better solution would be to try to cure large populations of magical thinking so that they no longer feel the need to conduct silly medieval rituals in order to please an imaginary deity.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
The better solution is to give people enough space to move freely.
Of course if you can solve the space problem it no longer exists, but unless you can pull a tardis out of your arse there are many situations where "more space" is simply not an option. The religious festival in Mecca is a prime example, in particular, the part where the pilgrim is required to walk around (what looks like) a huge stone box three times and throw pebbles at the devil (the stone box). The 'box' is already in the middle of large open area, but there are only so many people who can stand within pebble throwing distance at one time.
When too many people in one place have too much freedom of movement, there is nothing to dampen that movement should everyone move in the same direction for some reason (eg: band appears on stage, some idiot drops some firecrackers, rubbish bin catches fire, etc) Correctly placed barriers can significantly REDUCE the chance of "crowd crush" and stampedes, it's a common and well-understood technique that is often used to control "mosh pits" at large concerts and similar events.
The basic principle is no different to putting baffles in a petrol tanker truck to stop it sloshing about uncontrollably and derailing the truck, a crowd has a "pressure" that is related to it's density, volume, and overall direction of motion. A larger space can build up much higher "spot" pressures than a small space with the same density and motion. As I understand the problem in TFA, the sheer number of people makes it impossible/expensive to simulate the effect of crowd control measures in real time. However the basic principles of "crowd baffles" are well understood and have significantly reduced the likelihood of tragedy over the last few decades that they have been in use. If you find that hard to believe, try obtaining public liability insurance for a large event without having a credible crowd control plan.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.