Roles of physical collision forces and walking characteristics on pedestrian traffic flow status

Abstract

The physical collision force between pedestrians affects the walking states of pedestrians. However, the relationship between physical collision force and pedestrian walking states remains unclear. To bridge this gap, a series of pedestrian-controlled experiments were designed. During the experiments, the physical collision forces were obtained using pressure sensors worn by the pedestrian. Walking characteristics, including speed and density, were obtained through video processing technologies from aerial videos taken by drones. Furthermore, the relationships between the physical collision forces and the walking characteristics were analyzed. The results show that, when the collision forces between pedestrians exceed 715 N, it will lead to the instability in the pedestrian traffic flow; when the collision forces are less than 400 N, the pedestrian walking state will remain stable; and when the collision forces are between 400 and 715 N, the pedestrian walking status may be described as in either an unstable or stable state.

KEYWORDS:

• Traffic engineering
• pedestrian crowding
• physical collision force
• walking state
• controlled experiment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52002282), Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. 21NDJC163YB; 22NDJC166YB), Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. LY21E080010, LY20A020005), the Major Project of Science and Technology Innovation 2025 in Ningbo, China (No. 2020Z073), Open Research Fund Program of State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering (No. sklhse-2021-D-01).