Exploring the pedestrian level of interaction on platform conflict areas at metro stations by real-scale laboratory experiments

ABSTRACT

To reduce passenger interactions improvement on platform designs is needed. Present procedures use the level of service (LOS) based only on average values and therefore is not possible to identify which piece of space reached the highest interaction. This paper explores a new method to classify the interaction between passengers boarding and alighting through laboratory experiments under controlled conditions. The experiments were based on observation at two stations operated by London Underground Limited, which included platform edge doors and a semi-circular space defined as platform conflict area. Results were expressed according to the types of queues, formation of lanes, density by layer, and distance between passengers. The level of interaction was a more precise indicator compared to the LOS. The density by layer followed a logarithmic distribution, reaching almost four times the overall density. Further research needs to be conducted to measure the passenger space on the platform.

KEYWORDS:

• Pedestrian
• behaviour
• interaction
• platform
• metro station

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to London Underground Ltd and to all the volunteers and members of PAMELA for providing the data used in the observations and experiments. The authors are also grateful of Camila Ibarra, Maik Boltes and Jose Delpiano, researchers from King’s College London, Jülich Supercomputing Centre and Universidad de los Andes, respectively, for helping with the tracking tool software and for giving new ideas to include in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.