Experimental Study for Estimating the Passenger Space at Metro Stations with Platform Edge Doors

Abstract

The objective of this work was to study the effect of the ratio between passengers boarding and alighting on the passengers' behaviour at metro stations. A mock-up of a vehicle and the relevant portion of the platform was built to run a series of simulation experiments at University College London's Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory (PAMELA). Different scenarios were tested based on the next generation London Underground trains. The scenarios were classified according to different load conditions. Four types of behaviour are described. In most cases boarding is first, and passengers compete for space to enter the train. In the case of alighting, first passengers are faster than the rest of alighters due to the space available on the platform as boarding passengers give way to those who are getting off the train. In addition, alighters form lanes of flow depending on the number of passengers waiting to board the train on the platform. With respect to the train, if the density inside the train is higher than 4 passengers per square metre, then the flow at the doors starts to decrease. More experiments are needed to study the relationship between platform density and boarding and alighting time.

Study of the Space Occupied by a Wheelchair User at Metro de Santiago Platforms by Laboratory Experiments

“…e second criterion used establishes that, between two users close to the wheelchair user, there must be an angle greater than 5 degrees to consider both as the boundary of the occupied space (e.g., between persons 1 and 2 there are no more than 5 degrees and therefore person 2 is not marked). Both criteria were previously defined by other authors [28] who conducted similar research using a mock-up of a London Underground train, in which the area of passengers was measured on the platform for different scenarios of the ratio between passengers boarding and alighting. e detection method defined also considered the edges of the preferential waiting area as the limits of the space occupied by the wheelchair-bound.…”

“…Even more detailed Journal of Advanced Transportation analyses have been specified by Gérin-Lajoie [27], in which the ellipses described by pedestrians are asymmetric and vary in size when pedestrians encounter obstacles or when accelerations in walking speed occur. More recent studies done by Seriani and Fujiyama [28] reported the space occupied by passengers alighting from the train when platform doors are used, identifying that they adjust such space to avoid collision with other users. e authors [28] used a mock-up at the UCL´s Pedestrian Accessibility Movement Environment Laboratory (PAMELA).…”

“…More recent studies done by Seriani and Fujiyama [28] reported the space occupied by passengers alighting from the train when platform doors are used, identifying that they adjust such space to avoid collision with other users. e authors [28] used a mock-up at the UCL´s Pedestrian Accessibility Movement Environment Laboratory (PAMELA). e behavior of a pedestrian and the representation of the occupied space are also affecting the comfort or stress in users, especially when subjected to situations of pedestrian interactions in confined areas such as subway station platforms.…”

Exploring the Effect of Boarding and Alighting Ratio on Passengers’ Behaviour at Metro Stations by Laboratory Experiments

“…Recently, de Ana Rodriguez et al [29] reported that the use of platform edge doors has no relevant impact on the BAT; however passengers change their behaviour by queuing at the side of the doors rather than waiting in front of the doors. Following this study Seriani et al [30,31] studied the interaction and passenger space at PAMELA, in which passengers reached a high interaction near the doors and it decreased as the distance from the doors increased because of the availability of space to board or alight.…”

Modelling the distribution of passengers waiting to board the train at metro stations

“…In those studies at PAMELA, it was reported that PEDs have no relevant impact on the boarding and alighting time. Other studies (Fernandez et al, 2010;Fujiyama et al, 2012;Karekla, and Tyler, 2012;Tyler et al, 2015;Holloway et al, 2016;Seriani et al, 2018) have been performed at PAMELA to analyse the passenger behaviour and how the interact with the station or train furniture, door spacing, door width, accessibility, etc. However, these experiments did not include the distribution of passengers when PEDs are used at the PTI.…”