Experimental Study of Oblique Pedestrian Streams

Abstract

The intersecting of pedestrian streams is a common phenomenon which would lead to the pedestrian deceleration, stopping, and even threat to the safety of walking. The organization of pedestrian flow is a critical factor which influences the intersection traffic. The aim of this paper is to study the characteristics of oblique pedestrian streams by a set of pedestrian experiments. Two groups of experiment participants, three volume levels and five intersecting angles were tested. The qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis methods were applied to find out the relationship between the pedestrian streams angle and pedestrian characteristics. The results indicated that the mean and median speed, exit traffic efficiency decreased initially and increased afterwards with the increase of intersecting angles when the volume was 1,000 p/h/m and 3,000 p/h/m, while the speed standard deviation changing inversely. However, these four factors show the opposite variation tendency in volume 5,000 p/h/m. Meanwhile, the quadratic function was selected to fit them. It is found that the worst speeds of pedestrian streams were 131° and 122° in volume 1,000 p/h/m and 3,000 p/h/m, respectively, and the greatest influence on pedestrian streams was 125° in volume 5,000 p/h/m. The results of this research can help establish the foundation for the organization and optimization of intersecting pedestrian streams.