Microscopic Pedestrian Simulation Model to Evaluate "Lane-Like Segregation" of Pedestrian Crossing

TL;DR

This paper introduces a microscopic pedestrian simulation model based on physical forces to evaluate policy impacts on pedestrian crossing behavior before implementation, demonstrating its effectiveness through a case study.

Contribution

A novel microscopic pedestrian simulation model based on physical forces was developed to quantitatively assess policy impacts prior to implementation.

Findings

Lane-like segregation policy improves average speed and reduces delay.

Simulation results favor lane-like segregation over mixed-lane policies.

The model effectively predicts pedestrian behavior under different policies.

Abstract

One of the objectives of the pedestrian analysis is to evaluate the effects of proposed policy on the pedestrian facilities before its implementation. The implementation of a policy without pedestrian analysis might lead to a very costly trial and error due to the implementation cost (i.e. user cost, construction time and cost, etc.). On the other hand, using good analysis tools, the trial and error of policy could be done in the analysis level. Once the analysis could prove a good performance, the implementation of the policy is straightforward. The problem is how to evaluate the impact of the policy quantitatively toward the behavior of pedestrians before its implementation. Since the interaction of pedestrians cannot be well address using a macroscopic level of analysis, a microscopic level of analysis is the choice. However, the analytical solution of the microscopic pedestrian model is very difficult and simulation models are more practical approach. To evaluate the impact of the policy quantitatively toward the behavior of pedestrians before its implementation, a microscopic pedestrian simulation model was developed. The model was based on physical forces, which work upon each pedestrian dynamically. To demonstrate the numerical analysis of the model, an experimental policy on pedestrian crossing was performed. The simulation results showed that the keep right policy or the lane-like segregation policy is inclined to be superior to do minimum or mix-lane policy in terms of average speed, average delay and dissipation time.