2,426 research outputs found
New insights into pedestrian flow through bottlenecks
Capacity estimation is an important tool for the design and dimensioning of
pedestrian facilities. The literature contains different procedures and
specifications which show considerable differences with respect to the
estimated flow values. Moreover do new experimental data indicate a stepwise
growing of the capacity with the width and thus challenge the validity of the
specific flow concept. To resolve these differences we have studied
experimentally the unidirectional pedestrian flow through bottlenecks under
laboratory conditions. The time development of quantities like individual
velocities, density and individual time gaps in bottlenecks of different width
is presented. The data show a linear growth of the flow with the width. The
comparison of the results with experimental data of other authors indicates
that the basic assumption of the capacity estimation for bottlenecks has to be
revised. In contradiction with most planning guidelines our main result is,
that a jam occurs even if the incoming flow does not overstep the capacity
defined by the maximum of the flow according to the fundamental diagram.Comment: Traffic flow, pedestrian traffic, crowd dynamics, capacity of
bottlenecks (16 pages, 8 figures); (+ 3 new figures and minor revisions
Microscopic insights into pedestrian motion through a bottleneck, resolving spatial and temporal variations
The motion of pedestrians is subject to a wide range of influences and
exhibits a rich phenomenology. To enable precise measurement of the density and
velocity we use an alternative definition using Voronoi diagrams which exhibits
smaller fluctuations than the standard definitions. This method permits
examination on scales smaller than the pedestrians. We use this method to
investigate the spatial and temporal variation of the observables at
bottlenecks. Experiments were performed with 180 test subjects and a wide range
of bottleneck parameters. The anomalous flow through short bottlenecks and
non-stationary states present with narrow bottlenecks are analysed
Empirical characteristics of different types of pedestrian streams
Reliable empirical data and proper understanding of pedestrian dynamics are
necessary for fire safety design. However, specifications and data in different
handbooks as well as experimental studies differ considerably. In this study,
series of experiments under laboratory conditions were carried out to study the
characteristics of uni- and bidirectional pedestrian streams in straight
corridor. The Voronoi method is used to resolve the fine structure of the
resulting velocity-density relations and spatial dependence of the
measurements. The result shows differences in the shape of the relation for
\rho > 1.0 m-2. The maximal specific flow of unidirectional streams is
significantly larger than that of all bidirectional streams examined
Quantitative Description of Pedestrian Dynamics with a Force based Model
This paper introduces a space-continuous force-based model for simulating
pedestrian dynamics. The main interest of this work is the quantitative
description of pedestrian movement through a bottleneck. Measurements of flow
and density will be presented and compared with empirical data. The results of
the proposed model show a good agreement with empirical data. Furthermore, we
emphasize the importance of volume exclusion in force-based models.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, 2009 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conferences
on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technologies (WI-IAT 2009), 15-18
September 2009, in Milano, Italy, 200
Inflow process of pedestrians to a confined space
To better design safe and comfortable urban spaces, understanding the nature
of human crowd movement is important. However, precise interactions among
pedestrians are difficult to measure in the presence of their complex
decision-making processes and many related factors. While extensive studies on
pedestrian flow through bottlenecks and corridors have been conducted, the
dominant mode of interaction in these scenarios may not be relevant in
different scenarios. Here, we attempt to decipher the factors that affect human
reactions to other individuals from a different perspective. We conducted
experiments employing the inflow process in which pedestrians successively
enter a confined area (like an elevator) and look for a temporary position. In
this process, pedestrians have a wider range of options regarding their motion
than in the classical scenarios; therefore, other factors might become
relevant. The preference of location is visualized by pedestrian density
profiles obtained from recorded pedestrian trajectories. Non-trivial patterns
of space acquisition, e.g., an apparent preference for positions near corners,
were observed. This indicates the relevance of psychological and anticipative
factors beyond the private sphere, which have not been deeply discussed so far
in the literature on pedestrian dynamics. From the results, four major factors,
which we call flow avoidance, distance cost, angle cost, and boundary
preference, were suggested. We confirmed that a description of decision-making
based on these factors can give a rise to realistic preference patterns, using
a simple mathematical model. Our findings provide new perspectives and a
baseline for considering the optimization of design and safety in crowded
public areas and public transport carriers.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure
Methods for measuring pedestrian density, flow, speed and direction with minimal scatter
The progress of image processing during recent years allows the measurement
of pedestrian characteristics on a "microscopic" scale with low costs. However,
density and flow are concepts of fluid mechanics defined for the limit of
infinitely many particles. Standard methods of measuring these quantities
locally (e.g. counting heads within a rectangle) suffer from large data
scatter. The remedy of averaging over large spaces or long times reduces the
possible resolution and inhibits the gain obtained by the new technologies.
In this contribution we introduce a concept for measuring microscopic
characteristics on the basis of pedestrian trajectories. Assigning a personal
space to every pedestrian via a Voronoi diagram reduces the density scatter.
Similarly, calculating direction and speed from position differences between
times with identical phases of movement gives low-scatter sequences for speed
and direction. Closing we discuss the methods to obtain reliable values for
derived quantities and new possibilities of in depth analysis of experiments.
The resolution obtained indicates the limits of stationary state theory.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figs, submitted to Physica
Steady State of Pedestrian Flow in Bottleneck Experiments
Experiments with pedestrians could depend strongly on initial conditions.
Comparisons of the results of such experiments require to distinguish carefully
between transient state and steady state. In this work, a feasible algorithm -
Cumulative Sum Control Chart - is proposed and improved to automatically detect
steady states from density and speed time series of bottleneck experiments. The
threshold of the detection parameter in the algorithm is calibrated using an
autoregressive model. Comparing the detected steady states with previous
manually selected ones, the modified algorithm gives more reproducible results.
For the applications, three groups of bottleneck experiments are analysed and
the steady states are detected. The study about pedestrian flow shows that the
difference between the flows in all states and in steady state mainly depends
on the ratio of pedestrian number to bottleneck width. When the ratio is higher
than a critical value (approximately 115 persons/m), the flow in all states is
almost identical with the flow in steady state. Thus we have more possibilities
to compare the flows from different experiments, especially when the detection
of steady states is difficult.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure
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