Ig Nobel for Dutch research about pedestrians not bumping into each other
Technical University Eindhoven researchers Federico Toschi and Alessandro Corbetta were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for their research into how pedestrians avoid bumping into each other at Eindhoven train station. Among other things, they discovered that people keep an average distance of at least 75 centimeters from each other to prevent collisions, and that 1 in 1,000 people will turn around and go back the way they came to avoid bumping into someone else.
The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded annually for research that first makes you laugh, but then makes you think. This involves real, scientific research that must be published in a scientific journal. Toschi and Corbetta's study was published in the journal Physical Review E in 2018. They were delighted by the Ig Nobel Prize. "We are very proud of very proud of this award. This recognition is great," Corbetta said on the TU/e website.
For this study, Tosci and Corbetta installed four sensors under the platforms of Eindhoven station, and for six months they observed the movements of 5 million pedestrians within an area of 27 square meters. They found that pedestrians unconsciously and constantly try to avoid collisions with oncoming people by changing their walking route meters in advance if they see a collision coming. They also saw that people keep an average of 75 centimeters away from each other.
"About 80 of these pedestrians actually collided with each other. The other pedestrians adjusted their walking route until they were at least 140 centimeters apart and thus managed to avoid a collision," Corbetta said. They also found that about 1 person in every 1,000 would turn around completely and walk back the way they came to avoid a collision.
According to the researchers, their study into recognizing these movement patterns can be essential in managing pedestrian traffic flow. "In this way, we can make places where many pedestrians congregate safer and more efficient, based on the natural walking behavior of people," Toschi said. "How do we prevent congestion? How can we spread crowds of people over an area as much as possible? We are trying to manipulate the social system, as it were, but with good intentions.”
This year, Ig Nobel prizes were also awarded to a study into volatile organic compounds given off by people watching movies in a theater, a study showing that the obesity of a country's politicians may be an indicator of that country's corruption, and a study finding that sexual orgasms can be as effective as medicine for treating a stuffy nose, among others.
Last year, Amsterdam researcher Damiaan Denys won an Ig Nobel Prize for his study into Misophonia - a mental illness in which certain sounds like snoring can drive people to extreme tendencies. The year before, Nijmegen researchers won this prize for their study into dirty banknotes.
