Swarmlike collective behavior in bicycling | Hacker News Reader

Swarmlike collective behavior in bicycling

phys.org

37 pointsdnetesn10 comments

Cyclists minimize drag and maximize safety. When somebody slows down or they foresee a slow down (roundabout, traffic light, intersection, traffic, etc) the cyclists behind move to the side to get a better view and/or an unblocked path to slow down on their own at their own pace. This is normal for amateurs on a group ride. I've never been in a race, they also maximize speed in those.

Cyclists on a slow ride with friends and family are a different thing with different dynamics, more like people walking. They maximize chatting.

Many commuter cyclists do maximize speed, although on less fancy bikes.

Really surprised this article did not mention wind resistance. The majority of cyclists in a peloton race are just trying to reduce the amount of effort they expend during the race so that they have the most energy at the end, to win or help their teammate win.

I think what they were trying to look for regarding school of fish would be better demonstrated by watching traffic patterns of motorbikes in a crowded city like Saigon. Small 50cc-150cc bikes are the main mode of transportation in the city. There is no need to combat wind resistance, just get to the destination as quickly as possible.

(Spent 9 years racing competitively and have lived and driven in Saigon for the last two years.)

> ... aerodynamics only come into play at the outside edges of the peloton. Instead, the researchers found that peloton dynamics are likely driven by rider vision, with each rider keeping other riders within a range of peripheral vision that is most sensitive to motion. Additionally, wave propagation speeds were consistent with human reaction time ...

So this is a swarming, shoaling, flocking behaviour in the core of a peloton where (as you'll know) the wind resistance is light enough to freewheel and eat snacks. We're starlings!

Its not so much something that "just happens" as something that is learned. Go out for a trip with your local serious bike club (after training hard for 12 months just to be able to keep up) and try "half wheeling", passing on the wrong side, standing up incorrectly, speeding up after the crest of a hill, slowing down at the start of a climb, or using your brakes in anything other than a life-threatening emergency. They wont be scared to set you straight.

About 200 years ago it was a similar thing for 'shave tails': new Cavalry recruits. A shave tail would go on a spur ride (earn their spurs) and get their butt handed to them for about two weeks straight, or until they got the hang of riding a horse in a safe manner.

Ok, so what are the fluids that other crowd behaviour act in - if cyclists are minimising drag, what is the social equivalent for choosing which band to listen to or which film star to like, which policy to approve of?

I'd say you'll find few commonalities between peleoton and fashion dynamics. One is shaped by physical, the other by social interactions. I don't see what features would transfer.

Even if you try to use terms that do transfer, like say "avant-garde", you don't get much overlap. Imagine how the Tour de France would look if teams would split off here and there to follow their own course, hoping the others would follow.

There is a prize in the Tour de France for 'combativity' and it means some competitors end up powering off on attacks that have minimal chance of success, so you're maybe not as far off as you'd think!

This addresses a similar question https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267627528_The_hipst...

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