Is Slowing Down Enough to Model Movement on Stairs?

Gerta Köster (), Daniel Lehmberg and Felix Dietrich ()
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Gerta Köster: Munich University of Applied Sciences
Daniel Lehmberg: Munich University of Applied Sciences
Felix Dietrich: Munich University of Applied Sciences and TU München

A chapter in Traffic and Granular Flow '15, 2016, pp 35-42 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract There are manyKöster, Gerta well validated modelsLehmberg, Daniel of pedestrian movement on a flatDietrich, Felix surface. This is not the case for movement on stairs. Experiments show that pedestrians slow down when climbing or descending stairs. Hence, it is tempting to model movement on stairs by simply slowing down by a factor. But this would imply that, other than being slower, motion on stairs mirrors motion in the plane. Is that assumption justified? We conduct field observations that reveal similarities but also significant differences. Thus, we argue that modelling movement on stairs by slowing down free-flow velocities may be an acceptable first shot. True microscopic behaviour, however, like treading from step to step and keeping to a straight line instead of trying to overtake can only be captured by a dedicated model. We present an extension to the Optimal Steps Model that achieves this.

Keywords: Model Movement; Stride Length; Lecture Hall; Dense Crowd; Fundamental Diagram (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-33482-0_5

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-33482-0_5

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