Modeling pedestrian switching behavior for attractions

While walking on the streets, pedestrians can aware attractions like shopping windows. Some of them might shift their attention towards the attractions, namely switching behavior. As a first step, this study investigates collective effects of the switching behavior for an attraction by means of numerical simulations. Such switching behavior leads some pedestrians head for the attraction, or even all the pedestrians have visited the attraction if the social influence is getting stronger. These collective patterns of pedestrian behavior are summarized in a phase diagram. The findings from this study can be interpreted into pedestrian facility management particularly for retail stores. c © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of PED2014.