How bottleneck width and restricted walking height affect pedestrian motion: Experimental analysis

Maoyu Li, Zhizuan Zhou, Xiaodong Zhou, Ping Zhang, Han Cheng, Jiajia Jiang, Nan Jiang and Lizhong Yang

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2022, vol. 605, issue C

Abstract: The enhancement of traffic efficiency and the safety of pedestrians in transportation and evacuation have been paid increasing attention. In some abnormal situations such as the presence of smoke, pedestrians have to evacuate by adopting the posture of stoop, which may challenge the capacity of the transportation system. This study focuses on the effects of restricted walking height and bottleneck width on the unidirectional pedestrian flow through bottlenecks. Ten combinations of bottleneck widths and walking heights are considered. The results show that the pedestrian velocities of 1.4 m and normal walking heights both increase with the bottleneck width. Pedestrians have higher velocity at 1.4 m and 1.6 m walking heights in comparison with normal and 1.2 m walking heights, which is attributed to the influence of walking height on the walking motivation of pedestrians. Compared with normal walking height, it appears that bottleneck with restricted walking height has lower pedestrian flow. Besides, a linear relation between flow rate and walking height is observed, and the flow rate increases linearly with walking height. The findings of this study provide insights into the dynamics of pedestrian stoop walking under restricted walking height through the bottleneck.

Keywords: Bottleneck; Pedestrian flow; Restricted walking height; Stoop walking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:605:y:2022:i:c:s0378437122006100

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2022.127967

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