Abstract
Interest in the lateral forces exerted by large groups of pedestrians has been highlighted in recent years by problems encountered worldwide with several long-span bridges. Amplitudes of lateral bridge vibration have been observed that are at least an order of magnitude greater than can be explained by conventional random loading models. The currently favoured explanation for the occurrence of such large amplitudes of bridge vibration is synchronisation of pedestrian motion in response to motion of the bridge. Herein probabilistic models of pedestrian lateral loading are developed and used to assess the probable range of amplitudes of bridge lateral vibration. Theoretical predictions are compared, and show reasonable correlation, with the reported amplitudes of lateral vibration of four existing footbridges.
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