Modelling Single File Pedestrian Motion Across Cultures

Experiments on single file pedestrian motion conducted in India and in Germany conclusively show that despite similarities in the shape of the fundamental diagram of pedestrian flow there also exist dissimilarities possibly due to cultural differences. Reported cultural differences in the perception of space is used to devise a modification to the Blue-Adler model of pedestrian motion. The modified model is shown to explain not only the generic shape of the fundamental diagram but also why different cultures produce different fundamental diagrams