A couple of Welsh scientists have created a computer model of how drunken crowds interact to better aid city planners in designing streets that are safer for the soberly impaired. They spent many hours in the local bar districts studying the behaviors of inebriated bar patrons staggering down the streets at night. These graphics show a simplified version of how these models shape up.

All Sober

Half Drunk

All Drunk

I don’t think it’s immediately obvious to discern from these images, but apparently,

the “laminar flow” (people lining up behind others to navigate passages) of the drunken crowd is a bit off. “Drunks become irritants because they slow people’s progress towards their goal,” says lead researcher Simon Moore, which means “they may then become targets of violence.”

I’m not really sure how you can design a street to better aid this behavior, but at least they are trying to address the issue. If this was identified as a problem in the US, I’m pretty sure the solution would be:

1. Prohibition
2. Increase the police budget by a billion
3. Propose Patron Act which strips inebriates of constitutional rights

That’s how we roll!
[ via - Gizmodo ]