Development of a Bidirectional Pedestrian Stream Model with an Oblique Intersecting Angle

Abstract

This study establishes a mathematical model that can represent the conflicting effects of two pedestrian streams with an oblique intersecting angle in a large crowd. In a previous study, a controlled experiment in which two streams of pedestrians were asked to walk in designated directions was used to model the bi-directional pedestrian stream of certain intersecting angles. In this study, we revisit that problem and apply the Bayesian inference approach to calibrate an improved model with the controlled experiment data. We also collected pedestrian movement data from a busy crosswalk using a video observation approach. The two sets of data are used separately to calibrate our proposed model. With the calibrated model, we study the relationship between speed, density, and flow in both the reference and conflicting streams, and predict how these factors affect the interactions of moving pedestrian streams. We find that the speed of one stream not only decreases with its total density, but it also decreases with the ratio of its flow in relation to the total flow, i.e., the speed of the pedestrians decreases if their stream changes from the major to the minor stream. We also observe that the maximum disruption induced by pedestrian flow from an intersecting angle occurs when the angle is near 135.

Reducing Bidirectional Pedestrian Conflict Based on Lane Formation Phenomenon in Subway Corridors

“…Previous studies on this topic relied on computer simulations [7][8][9], which built a simulated model based on patterns of pedestrian behaviours through the method of the cellular automaton or the social force [37][38]. The studies using computer simulations considered the behaviour of right-hand-sided, lane changing, and the collision avoidance in the complex bidirectional flow [39,40]; they had shortcomings, including poor randomness, ignoring diversity and adaptability of pedestrian, and poor simulation accuracy.…”

“…This study used an alternative approach, conducting experiments to simulate a real situation in rail station [19][20], to analyse pedestrian behaviours. After lane formation was recognized in bidirectional flow [4,8,20], literature qualitatively explored the process of lane formation including conflict, following effect [39] and evasive effect [41,42]. When the pedestrian volume of the bi-bidirectional flow increases, the lane formation has three patterns that are a free pattern, a lanes pattern and a jam pattern with the increase of volumes [43].…”

“…The analysis of pedestrian flow is fundamental in massive transit planning, facility design, and operations management. Although the study of pedestrian traffic was initiated in the 1950s, which was later than the first research of auto traffic, it has developed fast over the recent years with the advance of modern data collection technologies [4][5][6][7][8].…”

“…With the theoretical and methodical analysis of pedestrian flow, the bidirectional flow, which is a typical pedestrian flow organization, has attracted substantial attention [8][9][10][11][12][13]. The interactions of bidirectional pedestrian streams would induce a serious conflicting effect [14][15].…”

A Review of Experimental Studies on Complex Pedestrian Movement Behaviors

“…Considering flow ratio difference, a bidirectional pedestrian streams model with oblique intersecting angles was developed and validated by extracted experimental data. Their model was further improved by Xie et al (2013) using Bayesian inference method.…”