Relationships and Characteristics of Pedestrian Traffic Flow in Confined Passageways

Pedestrian traffic flow relationships and characteristics are the key theories used to support the planning and design of walking facilities. For different types of facilities, pedestrian traffic may have a longitudinal flow (unidirectional or bidirectional), cross flow, or multidirectional flow. The present study focuses on longitudinal pedestrian flow in confined passageways. Confined level passageways, ascending stairways, descending stairways, and two-way stairways in Shanghai, China, Metro stations with massive passenger volumes were observed; and data from those locations were collected. Pedestrian flow parameters, including volume, density, and speed, under comparatively full operation states from low density to high density, were acquired by video recording. Overall trends in the relationships between pedestrian volume, density, and speed were analyzed with scatter plots. With full consideration of the significance of the statistical regression results and consistency with reality, models of pedestrian traffic flow for speed density and volume density relationships were established for all the facilities observed. The characteristics of the built models in combination with walking behavior, determined by comparison of the differences in the characteristics of walking facilities and traffic operations, are discussed. The collected data, built models, and pedestrian flow characteristics that were revealed could be helpful for improving theories on pedestrian traffic flow and be valuable references to similar studies in the pedestrian context.