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Modern Crowd Control Lessons (from Ancient Pompeii)

What computer models are telling us about how to manage a crowd, the ancient Romans already seemed to know

Separate Queues from Promenades. Moving the bathroom and concessions next to the stadium instead of inside carried the added benefit of keeping those who were standing around separate from those who were walking to and from their seats. Good crowd management relies on keeping people moving at their comfortable pace of about 1 to 1.3 meters per second. Putting lines for the loo and for hotdogs in the same places where people walk creates clustering and disrupts that natural pace. This not only creates anxiety and frustration, but it also has a domino effect, creating congestion far away from the source, the same way it does on a busy road when cars accelerate and slow down. If modern stadiums aren’t going to separate the bathrooms from the venue entirely—and they’re not—Still says they need to create wider spaces around the perimeter that can be divided into a walking concourse and concourse for bathroom and concessions outside of that walking lane with broad entry and exits spaces between the two.

Open Open Open! Here’s a challenge: Look for areas of Pompeii’s stadium where bottlenecks might occur, where the crowd could overwhelm a space. Still says you won’t find them. Seats are at the optimum viewing angle, and seating “packing densities are to comfort, not cost.” Again, Romans weren’t worried about ROI, but Still maintains that compromise is needed in modern facilities to reduce the risk of crowd disasters. At Pompeii, spectators would have at least twice the personal space in their seats as a modern fan. Stairways to the concourse present themselves at angles that keep people moving, and they’re as wide as the concourses they link to. On the side of the stadium where the city wall comes to a corner, there are no stairs, which would have forced people into tight spaces. Exits from the stadium to the palaestra, called vomitories, span the entire western side of the space, and that space itself isn’t blocked off at its north and south extremities. Instead, it opens to wide roads, allowing for people to spill out into the city and toward gates that leave the town. The combined effect of all these design elements, Still says, is palpable. “Physically it’s the same size as a modern facility, but the perception of space is significantly different. In a place like Wembley [Stadium in London, one Still has studied], you feel somewhat oppressed, closed in.” In Pompeii, it’s so open you feel almost insignificant but also part of the spectacle. To do this today, Still says, requires forethought all the way back to site choice. Often, he says, architects and planners put aesthetics (like a skyline or waterfront view) before safety as they try to shoehorn large venues into spaces that won’t allow for the kind of openness crowds need.