Analysis of Walking-Edge Effect in Train Station Evacuation Scenarios: A Sustainable Transportation Perspective

Abstract

Due to the highly developed rail transit over the past decades, the phenomena of complex individual self-organized behaviors and mass crowd dynamics have become a great concern in the train station. In order to understand passengers&rsquo

walking-edge effect and analyze the relationship between the layout and sustainable service abilities of the train station, a heuristics-based social force model is proposed to elaborate the crowd dynamics. Several evacuation scenarios are implemented to describe the walking-edge effect in a train station with the evacuation efficiency, pedestrian flow, and crowd density map. The results show that decentralizing crowd flow can significantly increase the evacuation efficiency in different scenarios. When the exits are far away from the central axis of the railway station, the walking-edge effect has little influence on the evacuation efficiency. Obstacles can guide the movement of passengers by channelizing pedestrian flows. In addition, a wider side exit of the funnel-shaped corridors can promote walking-edge effect and decrease the pressure among a congested crowd. Besides providing a modified social force model with considering walking-edge effect, several suggestions are put forward for managers and architects of the train station in designing sustainable layouts.

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• http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11247188 under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

• https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7188/pdf under the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

• https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7188,

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7188/pdf,

https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i24p7188-d298265.html,

https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2996462463 under the license cc-by

• https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7188/pdf,

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11247188

under the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/