Characteristics of pedestrians’ alighting and boarding process in metro stations

Abstract

The alighting and boarding process in metro stations is complicated, and it is impacted by pedestrians’ different behaviours. This paper aims to study the characteristics of pedestrians’ alighting and boarding process in metro stations through a controlled experiment. In this experiment, there are three variables, namely the ratio of the number of boarding pedestrians to alighting pedestrians (i.e., 1:3, 1:1 and 3:1), whether (i.e., yes and no) obeying the rule of “Disembarking precedes embarking” and the number of pedestrians in the room. Video recordings and the PeTrack software are employed to extract and track pedestrians’ trajectories. Time headway, detouring degree, speed and difference in boarding and alighting strategies are analyzed according to the trajectories. It is discovered that the time headway and detouring degree of pedestrians in tests that pedestrians disobey the “Disembarking precedes embarking” rule is higher than that pedestrians obey the rule under the same number of on-board pedestrians and ratio of the number of boarding pedestrians to alighting pedestrians, while the average speed is the opposite. If the number of alighting pedestrians and boarding pedestrians is equal, i.e., 1:1, the case that pedestrians disobey the “Disembarking precedes embarking” rule has the most significantly negative impact on time headway, detouring degree and speed. The boarding pedestrians board from the left side of the door can improve their boarding efficiency, particular under the high number of boarding pedestrians. It is beneficial for alighting pedestrians to alight from the left side of the door if the ratio of the number of boarding pedestrians to alighting pedestrians is 1:1. It is hoped that our findings will be helpful in improving alighting and boarding efficiency and protecting pedestrian safety in metro stations.