Pedestrian Flow Characteristics for Different Pedestrian Facilities and Situations

Abstract

The pedestrian walking data collected at nineteen locations in five cities of India are analyzed in this paper. Pedestrian facilities are classified based on their width as sidewalk, wide-sidewalk and precincts. The analysis indicates that the pedestrian free flow speed is high on sidewalks (1.576 m/s) and low on precincts (1.340 m/s). The increase in width of the facility resulted in increased space available to a pedestrian, but reduced maximum flow rate and optimum density. It is found that the relationship between speed and density follows Underwood (exponential) model on sidewalk of varying widths and Greenshield’s (linear) model on a non-exclusive facility. Bi-directional flow on a facility affects the free flow speed and space available to the pedestrian adversely at high density. Squeezing effect at the centre and follow the predecessor near sides is observed under heavy bidirectional flow. The presence of a bottleneck reduces the free flow speed and maximum flow substantially. Pedestrians moved in layers at high density. Maximum flow rate is observed to be higher on the carriageway (2.067 ped/s) as compared to an exclusive pedestrian facility (1.493 ped/s).