One of the key acquisitions that Bentley announced at its recent Year in Infrastructure 2018 Conference was LEGION for pedestrian simulation. Given that human behavior is far from predictable, how does pedestrian simulation actually work? This article explores the technology in more detail, looking at other applications in the field and delving deeper into LEGION and the science behind it.
URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/feature/2018/Legion-PedestrianSimulation.html
AECbytes Blog 
When an emergency occurs, people behave entirely differently than movement under normal use conditions. How does the simulation model generate its predictions for emergencies? What data is available for testing model results (both for normal use and emergencies)?
Thanks, Paul! I would assume there are different algorithms capturing the rules for different situations. And from what I have understand, lot of video footage of people in different situations was analyzed to come up with predictive rules. The validation/testing of the simulations, when required, is also done using videos capturing the real life scenarios and comparing them with the simulation.
Yes, I would make the same assumptions except for the fact that emergency behavior is rare and difficult to observe for simulation modeling and testing. I wonder if this lack of data requires other approaches for this?
I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe emergency evacuation relies more on mathematical modeling than on observation and video footage? Because behavior would be more predictable in an evacuation — everyone would want to get out as quickly as possible.
I hope someone in the field can shed some light on this.