Experimental study of pedestrian dynamics and crowd risk on ramps

Zhijian Fu, Shengxian Yang, Lin Luo, Jian Li and Xiaobo Liu

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2025, vol. 659, issue C

Abstract: This study investigates pedestrian dynamics and crowd risk on ramps, a topic not fully explored in previous research. Our experimental setup covers a boarder range of densities for both walking and running scenarios. Our main findings include: (1) Once pedestrian density exceeds 1.70ped/m2, flow rates continue to increase and remain consistently higher during ascending the ramp compared to descending, a trend not observed on level ground. This phenomenon can be explained by step behavior mechanisms, driven by the transition from two to three lanes, which help maintain consistent headway and step lengths. (2) The addition of walking lanes increases velocity curl (i.e., local spinning motion) on the ascending segment, especially in running scenarios. When combined with the high-density levels typically seen in ascending movement, these effects amplify crowd danger. Statistical analyses confirm crowd risks are more strongly correlate with movement directions (descending vs. ascending) than with movement speeds (walking vs. running).

Keywords: Ramps; Controlled experiment; Pedestrian dynamics; Crowd danger; Lane formation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437124008550
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:659:y:2025:i:c:s0378437124008550

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2024.130345

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().