Modeling of Pedestrian Counter Flow in Corridors with Different Barriers

Abstract

An improved cellular automata model is proposed to study the pedestrian counter flow in corridors with different placements of barriers. The model considers the sensing region, collision avoidance, following, position exchange, and other common pedestrian behaviors. The sensing region here considers not only the number of pedestrians, but also their distances, velocities, both of which affect pedestrians’ transition probabilities. For example, when confronting with opposite pedestrians in high speed, the pedestrian may prefer to slow down or change the original direction. In the model, the pedestrians can change their velocities according to different situations. Simulations are conducted with the proposed model and the effect of different placements of barriers in corridors is studied in detail. The flow rates in different situations are compared, and it is found that certain placements of barriers can obviously improve the corridor’s pedestrian capacity, which may contribute to corridor design in the future.