Dynamic potential use cases

The most common use case of dynamic potential is to weigh shorter but more crowded paths against moderate detours that are less crowded.

Example: A crowd of people walks around a bend. Every pedestrian wants to take the fastest option. So they ask themselves: Should I use this shorter path along the more crowded inner path section or should I use outer path sections that are less crowded to be able to walk faster? The dynamic potential function does exactly this weighing.

It can also be used, for example, in straight corridors where there is pedestrian traffic in both directions. Since the dynamic potential function considers oncoming pedestrians as a more severe obstacle than pedestrians who walk in the same direction, it encourages pedestrians to form lanes. For this use case, the dynamic potential function can be used on ramps (Defining the Dynamic Potential for a ramp or stairway).

If pedestrians follow a dynamic potential across a road, they can find the gaps between vehicles, provided that the Consider vehicles in dynamic potential attribute is selected (Pedestrian Area tab). If the dynamic potential function is either not selected for the pedestrian route that crosses the road or not selected for the link, pedestrians will simply stop at the conflict area and wait until the vehicle traffic allows them to continue.