The optimization method for alleviating the congestion during peak hours of Guangzhou metro line 3 is based on thorough research and analysis

Abstract

The proportion of subway usage in citizens' daily travel increases everyday, but overcrowding during peak hours remains a problem. Studying the characteristics of passenger flows in subways during peak hours is meaningful and a basic requirement to ensure the operation of stations. Although there are various reasons for the surge in passenger flows during peak hours, the fundamental solution is to control the passenger volume within the acceptable range of the station. Therefore, studying appropriate flow control methods to alleviate overcrowding during peak hours is practically valuable for urban development and citizens' lives. To solve this problem, the existing solutions usually involve flow restrictions or diversion, resulting in additional consumption with limited effectiveness. This paper focuses on the overcrowding phenomenon during the evening rush hour of the subway. A route selection model is proposed based on passengers' tendency to choose the route with the minimum negative utility (long travel time, discomfort, etc.) to achieve the feasibility of reducing passenger flow during peak hours, with the objective function set as the minimum value. To optimize the model, decision nodes for constrained routes are provided based on the calculation process of the search decision points and passenger volume threshold set by facility capacity, i.e., when the actual capacity exceeds the threshold. Subsequently, reasonable restrictions are set on the decision nodes of the minimum utility function route to prevent many passengers from entering the platform. Several methods, case analysis and data importation, can effectively ensure the safe and efficient operation of the station.