Exploring an estimation approach for the pedestrian level of service for metro stations based on an interaction index

ABSTRACT

Studies on crowd characteristics and management strategies are imperative for modern metro stations. Previous studies mainly focused on pedestrian facilities like sidewalks or crossing, while this research aims to evaluate the efficiency and safety performance of metro stations by introducing a new concept, pedestrian level of service (PLOS). The authors divide a station into separate locations in four typical types: exits, stairways, corridors, and open areas. The characteristics of pedestrians in these four types of locations are delineated and a new index called the interaction index (II) is proposed to quantify the performance. By integrating the II values of all single locations, the PLOS of the whole station can be analyzed. To validate this method, field data were collected and compared. Finally, the Caobao Road metro station in Shanghai was used as a case study for the practical application.

KEYWORDS:

• Metro station crowd
• crowd motion characteristics
• building-EXODUS
• pedestrian level of service (PLOS)

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (grant number E080701/51508325). The author is grateful to Transportation Systems Laboratory for Comprehensive Performance Surveillance and Simulation for the software and hardware support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. http://mic-ro.com/metro/table.html.

2. CWT and LPPM evaluate the time delay and volume, DT evaluates distance delay and FR evaluates the fluctuation of crowd density rate.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [E080701/51508325];