The multi-fractal nature of pedestrian arrival times
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866914537572139008 |
|---|---|
| author | Pouw, Caspar A. S. Corbetta, Alessandro Gabbana, Alessandro Toschi, Federico |
| author_facet | Pouw, Caspar A. S. Corbetta, Alessandro Gabbana, Alessandro Toschi, Federico |
| contents | Pedestrian arrival times exhibit complex temporal organization across multiple scales, shaped by working hours, transportation schedules, and collective behaviors - features often neglected in conventional pedestrian arrival models. Using a dataset comprising over 23 million pedestrian movements at a Dutch railway station, we show that arrival processes cannot be fully characterized by inter-arrival time statistics alone. Instead, we demonstrate that pedestrian arrivals exhibit clear multifractal scaling, revealing scale-dependent correlations across a broad range of timescales.
To quantify these properties, we apply a framework based on generalized fractal dimensions, which captures the heterogeneous structure of arrivals beyond standard point-process descriptions. This approach enables the identification of distinct temporal regimes associated with external forcing and provides a quantitative basis for constructing more realistic synthetic arrival processes. Beyond pedestrian dynamics, this approach offers methodological relevance for understanding non-trivial arrival processes in other physical or biological systems. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_05788 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The multi-fractal nature of pedestrian arrival times Pouw, Caspar A. S. Corbetta, Alessandro Gabbana, Alessandro Toschi, Federico Physics and Society Pedestrian arrival times exhibit complex temporal organization across multiple scales, shaped by working hours, transportation schedules, and collective behaviors - features often neglected in conventional pedestrian arrival models. Using a dataset comprising over 23 million pedestrian movements at a Dutch railway station, we show that arrival processes cannot be fully characterized by inter-arrival time statistics alone. Instead, we demonstrate that pedestrian arrivals exhibit clear multifractal scaling, revealing scale-dependent correlations across a broad range of timescales. To quantify these properties, we apply a framework based on generalized fractal dimensions, which captures the heterogeneous structure of arrivals beyond standard point-process descriptions. This approach enables the identification of distinct temporal regimes associated with external forcing and provides a quantitative basis for constructing more realistic synthetic arrival processes. Beyond pedestrian dynamics, this approach offers methodological relevance for understanding non-trivial arrival processes in other physical or biological systems. |
| title | The multi-fractal nature of pedestrian arrival times |
| topic | Physics and Society |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.05788 |