Characteristics of pedestrian crowd flow demand for vibration serviceability of footbridges

Despite well-documented events of excessive vibration of footbridges due to pedestrian load- ing, there still remains great uncertainty in the modelling of crowd loading. Since footbridges serve different purposes and are located in different places, the traffic demands and pedestrian flows will vary greatly. This study presents the data obtained from video analysis of pedestrian flows at three different locations. The loca- tions studied include a railway station, a busy city centre footbridge, and a shopping centre. The parameters investigated include pedestrian flow rates (peds/min), gaps, and variations in group size. These results are presented and discussed in relation to the few other publications on this topic. This information will prove useful to those involved in the modelling of crowd loading on bridges by facilitating more accurate prediction of the crowd patterns on the bridge.