The author examined macroscopic behavioural patterns in a crowd of pedestrians in a large crosswalk from the perspective of micro-macro linkage in collective behaviour. Study 1 developed a macrolevel index to evaluate by field observation a "banded structure" of a pedestrian crowd. The index distinguished 2 patterns of crowd behaviour: one with a firmly established structure and one without a clear structure. To examine the formation of the structure, Study 2 used a computer simulation model of pedestrian behaviour with a close relationship between the microlevel behaviour of individuals and macrolevel behaviour of crowds. The micro-macro linkage is expressed through feeding the macrolevel index developed in Study 1 back into a behavioural model for each pedestrian. The results show that models without the linkage between the 2 levels tend to simulate disorganized crowd behaviour. (A)
Abstract