Time Headway Modeling and Capacity Analysis of Pedestrian Facilities Involving Individuals with Disabilities

Walking infrastructure should be designed to be effective for the needs of all pedestrian groups. Unfortunately, individuals with disabilities are often ignored in pedestrian facility analysis and design because of the lack of data on their walking behavior. A large-scale controlled walking experiment involving individuals with disabilities was conducted at Utah State University to observe individual pedestrian walking behavior on various walking facilities, including a passageway and a bottleneck. The purpose of this study was twofold: to model the time headway between individual types by using a mixed distribution model and to estimate passageway and bottleneck capacities and identify the impact of involving individuals with disabilities on capacity estimation. Analysis revealed that visually impaired individuals and individuals using nonmotorized wheelchairs and walkers caused the minimum capacity reduction on passageways and bottlenecks, whereas individuals using motorized wheelchairs caused the maximum capacity reduction in these areas. The findings are expected to improve the estimation of the facility capacity required to meet a preferred level of service for heterogeneous populations.

[1]  Jun Zhang,et al.  Transitions in pedestrian fundamental diagrams of straight corridors and T-junctions , 2011, 1102.4766.

[2]  Shing Chung Josh Wong,et al.  Bidirectional Pedestrian Stream Model with Oblique Intersecting Angle , 2010 .

[3]  Serge P. Hoogendoorn,et al.  Emergency Door Capacity: Influence of Door Width, Population Composition and Stress Level , 2012 .

[4]  Y. Tanaboriboon,et al.  Pedestrian Characteristics Study in Singapore , 1986 .

[5]  John J. Fruin,et al.  Pedestrian planning and design , 1971 .

[6]  A. Seyfried,et al.  The fundamental diagram of pedestrian movement revisited , 2005, physics/0506170.

[7]  Richard Cowan,et al.  Useful headway models , 1975 .

[8]  YangQuan Chen,et al.  Analysis of Walking Speeds Involving Individuals with Disabilities in Different Indoor Walking Environments , 2016 .

[9]  Abishai Polus,et al.  Pedestrian Flow and Level of Service , 1983 .

[10]  Mark R Virkler,et al.  Pedestrian speed-flow-density relationships : Pedestrians and pedestrian facilities , 1994 .

[11]  D. Branston.  Models of Single Lane Time Headway Distributions , 1976 .

[12]  Dirk Helbing,et al.  Dynamics of crowd disasters: an empirical study. , 2007, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[13]  Chao Yang,et al.  Walking Behavior and Pedestrian Flow Characteristics for Different Types of Walking Facilities , 2008 .

[14]  M. Schreckenberg,et al.  Experimental study of pedestrian counterflow in a corridor , 2006, cond-mat/0609691.

[15]  P N Daly,et al.  Pedestrian speed/flow relationships for underground stations , 1991 .

[16]  Serge P. Hoogendoorn,et al.  Controlled experiments to derive walking behaviour , 2002 .

[17]  Armin Seyfried,et al.  Performance of stairs: fundamental diagram and topographical measurements , 2013 .

[18]  Yordphol Tanaboriboon,et al.  ANALYSIS OF PEDESTRIAN MOVEMENTS IN BANGKOK , 1991 .

[19]  Bernhard Steffen,et al.  New Insights into Pedestrian Flow Through Bottlenecks , 2009, Transp. Sci..

[20]  Leon S. Lasdon,et al.  Nonlinear optimization using the generalized reduced gradient method , 1974 .