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Predicting where we walk

Nature volume 388, pages 19–20 (1997)Cite this article

Models that link human behaviour to the way paths are formed provide excellent predictions of path geometry. In principle, such models can be extended to urban areas, and used to help understand how space affects such phenomena as crime, congestion and pollution.

The application of classical physics to human affairs, known as social physics, grew in popularity through the early twentieth century. It reached a peak in the 1950s and 1960s when gravitation and potential theory was widely used to predict traffic flow, migration patterns and the distribution of population. Since then it has lost its appeal but, suddenly, new ideas from physics based on scaling and self-organization once again appear to have wide applicability to the social sciences.

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Figure 1: Pedestrian paths based on tracking visitors for the first ten minutes after they enter the Tate Gallery, London (August 1995).

References

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  1. Michael Batty is at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Michael Batty

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  1. Michael Batty
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Batty, M. Predicting where we walk. Nature 388, 19–20 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/40266

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