Analysis of Walking-Edge Effect in Train Station Evacuation Scenarios: A Sustainable Transportation Perspective

Kefan Xie, Benbu Liang, Yu Song and Xueqin Dong
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Kefan Xie: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Benbu Liang: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Yu Song: School of Public Administration, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Xueqin Dong: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 24, 1-16

Abstract: Due to the highly developed rail transit over the past decades, the phenomena of complex individual self-organized behaviors and mass crowd dynamics have become a great concern in the train station. In order to understand passengers’ walking-edge effect and analyze the relationship between the layout and sustainable service abilities of the train station, a heuristics-based social force model is proposed to elaborate the crowd dynamics. Several evacuation scenarios are implemented to describe the walking-edge effect in a train station with the evacuation efficiency, pedestrian flow, and crowd density map. The results show that decentralizing crowd flow can significantly increase the evacuation efficiency in different scenarios. When the exits are far away from the central axis of the railway station, the walking-edge effect has little influence on the evacuation efficiency. Obstacles can guide the movement of passengers by channelizing pedestrian flows. In addition, a wider side exit of the funnel-shaped corridors can promote walking-edge effect and decrease the pressure among a congested crowd. Besides providing a modified social force model with considering walking-edge effect, several suggestions are put forward for managers and architects of the train station in designing sustainable layouts.

Keywords: walking-edge effect; train station; evacuation simulation; sustainable layouts; pedestrian safety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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