I'm not stuck in a crowd -I am the crowd!

It's a while since I posted under my new 'hell is other people' tag, but this article set me in mind of it. I'd mentioned that my frustrations are often in crowds, and this article seems to identify some significant observations (related to chaos and complexity research).

a pedestrian seeks simply to minimize congestion in his visual field by walking towards the empty spaces he can see, while at the same time adjusting his speed in order to maintain a safe distance from the nearest obstacle. Digital simulations using this model have demonstrated that these two simple rules are sufficient to reproduce a broad range of the collective behaviors observed in crowds, such as the spontaneous formation of unidirectional lanes in opposite directions. Furthermore, as the density of pedestrians increases, the model can predict the emergence of new phenomena, such as the accordion effect characterized by successive forward waves of movement, interspersed with periods during which the pedestrians stand still (stop-and-go). Above a critical density threshold, a combination of these rules with the effect of physical contacts between pedestrians can spontaneously provoke gigantic, collective crushes. This phenomenon, referred to as turbulence, was observed during the accidents that occurred in Mecca in 2006 and characterizes the dynamics of a crowd in a dangerous situation, where pedestrians are overwhelmed by chaotic movement.

Now I can identify very easily with the basic strategy outlined above: I have realised that it's what I do. I think though, that where it goes wrong for me is that I tend to walk a darn sight faster than most people and so the flow and response manoeuvres of others So, in effect, as I suspected, I'm causing turbulence -reminds me of the 'not stuck in traffic you are traffic' issue. So, once again, 'hell is other people' becomes reflexive: we can't just objectivise it we have to view ourselves as part of the system and attend to our own part in it. Nothing surprising for a Christian perspective there: '... first take the log out of your own eye ...'.