The effect of passenger attributes on alighting and boarding efficiency based on social force model

Abstract

This paper mainly focuses on the study of the effect of passenger attribute namely the homogeneity and heterogeneity in passengers on the alighting and boarding efficiency (A&Be) in the subway stations. The frequently used design scheme of single alighting area and double waiting areas is chosen as the research scenario in this paper. The social force model is adopted as a fundamental driven equation of passengers’ movements. Different cases through changing the parameters including the desired speed, the relaxation time and the body radius which could represent the homogeneity and heterogeneity in passengers are set up. Simulation results indicate that the change of values of total traffic time and deadlock probability caused by the homogeneous body radius, relaxation time and desired speed is greater than that caused by the corresponding heterogeneous parameters. When passengers follow the civilized rules of alighting first, the homogeneous low desired speed, long relaxation time and large body radius will be adverse to the travel efficiency and could delay the start time of deadlock. The large heterogeneity of desired speed can make passengers’ motions unstable more easily. More passengers with high desired speed, short relaxation time and small body radius could facilitate the traffic. Moreover, the A&Be is more pronounced to the homogeneous body radius compared to different degrees of the homogeneous or heterogeneous desired speed and relaxation time. This investigation could offer theoretical support for passenger flow management in different time periods and improve the level of service in the subway station.