Pedestrian flow characteristics through different angled bends: Exploring the spatial variation of velocity

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 3;17(3):e0264635. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264635. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Common geometrical layouts could potentially be bottlenecks, particularly during emergency and high density situations. When pedestrians are interacting with such complex geometrical settings, the congestion effect might not be uniform over the bottleneck area. This study uses the trajectory data collected through a controlled laboratory experiment to explore the spatial variation of speeds when a group of people navigates through bends. Four turning angles, i.e., 45°, 90°, 135° and 180°, with a straight corridor and two speed levels, i.e., normal speed walking and slow running (jogging), were considered in these experiments. Results explained that the speeds are significantly different over the space within the bend for all angles (except 0°) under both speed levels. In particular, average walking speeds are significantly lower near the inner corner of the bend as compared to the outer corner. Further, such speed variations are magnified when the angle of the bend and desired speed increase. These outcomes indicate that even smaller turning angles, e.g., 45° could create bottlenecks near the inner corner of the bend, particularly when the walking speeds are high. The findings of this study could be useful in understanding the congestion and bottleneck effects associated with complex geometrical settings, and calibrating microscopic simulation tools to accurately reproduce such effects.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Humans
  • Pedestrians*
  • Running*
  • Walking

Grants and funding

Open access funding is provided by the Qatar National Library. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.