  This contribution provides a microscopic experimental study of pedestrian
motion in front of the bottleneck. Identification of individual pedestrians in
conducted experiments enables to explain the high variance of travel time by
heterogeneity of the crowd. Some pedestrians are able to push effectively
through the crowd, some get trapped in the crowd for significantly longer time.
This ability to push through the crowd is associated with the slope of
individual linear model of the dependency of the travel time on the number of
pedestrians in front of the bottleneck. Further detailed study of the origin of
such ability is carried out by means of the route choice, i.e. strategy whether
to bypass the crowd or to walk directly through it. The study has revealed that
the ability to push through the crowd is a combination of aggressiveness in
conflicts and willingness to overtake the crowd.
