Experimental study on the effect of trolley case on unidirectional pedestrian flow

Abstract

High proportion of pedestrians with trolley case during peak hours is a general phenomenon in comprehensive transportation hubs. This study focuses on the impact of trolley cases on unidirectional pedestrian flow. Nine combinations of exit widths and different ratios of pedestrians carrying trolleys are considered and pedestrian trajectories are extracted by using UWB equipment. Layer distribution is observed from the trajectories of the mixed pedestrian flow formed by the pedestrians with trolley cases and those without trolley cases. With the increase of the ratio of pedestrians with trolleys, the scatter plot of the data will move toward the lower density area of the fundamental diagram, and the maximum specific flow rate will decrease as well. In addition, Greenberg’s logarithmic model is effective for identifying velocity–density relationship. By comparing the individual velocities of pedestrians with trolleys to those without trolleys, it is shown that in a higher density corridor, the individual velocity can be significantly affected by the trolleys. In contrast, in low densities, trolley case has almost no effect on the velocity. The gender of pedestrians is found to have a little impact on their velocities whether or not pedestrians are carrying luggage in the study. The outcomes could be helpful to set the parameters of the crowds with trolleys in simulation and support the optimizing of pedestrian facilities.