48th Annual Universities' Transport Study Group Conference
Abstract
The objective of this work was to develop a new method to measure the interaction of passengers boarding and alighting at metro stations. This method included the Level of Interaction (LOI) as more precise indicator compared to the Level of Service (LOS). The method consisted of building a mock-up of a metro car and a series of simulation experiments in University College London’s Pedestrian Accessibility Movement Environmental Laboratory (PAMELA) based on observation at two London Underground station. This mock-up included Platform Edge Doors (PEDs) and a new space defined as Platform Conflict Area in front of the train doors in which the density of passengers was high. Results of the laboratory experiments were expressed according to the types of queues, formation of lanes, density by layer, and distance between passengers, in which the interaction followed a Logarithmic Distribution and no statistical differences were found with PEDs. These results are helpful for traffic engineers and policy makers to measure the interaction and use the LOI as a new indicator for the design of spaces in metro systems
