Crowding is a reality in which we find ourselves involved daily. The crowd produced in a traffic jam is a dynamic entity in
which the application of physics, mathematics and biology can provide practical help to understand how and why this problematic
situation occurs and what solutions can be found to resolve it. In the mobility education project “SicuraMENTE”, we carried out an
experiment on the conduct of a crowd by simulating a situation of intense city traffic. Taking a cue from an experimental situation
proposed in traffic physics, we have verified that a route with limited access can generate a traffic jam and the crowd of pedestrians
can be mitigated by forcing the crowd to use dedicated streets. Taking the outgoing time of the student crowd from the outlet road,
with and without the presence of an obstacle in the middle of the roadway, it was found that the traffic jam is resolved more quickly
in the situation with an obstacle because the flow of people is divided into two separate channels, reducing the probability that two
individuals are close and that this creates an obstruction (example of counter-intuitive physical principle). We also verified that the
speed of the elements of the crowd influences the formation of traffic jams, which are on average more likely in the case of higher
speed. These important aspects in the design of road networks and transport infrastructure have made students reason on physics’
topics, but also on the correct conduct in traffic. The multidisciplinary approach in education for safe and sustainable mobility, so
innovative in Italy, turned out to be effective in terms of teaching in the frame of a mix of academic disciplines, in which road safety
education has become the context and the goal.
