Simulation of emergency evacuation of passengers with and without disability at different types of metro stations

TL;DR

This study uses simulation to analyze emergency evacuation times in metro stations, comparing assisted and non-assisted passengers across different station layouts, highlighting the need for efficiency improvements.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation framework for evacuation in metro stations considering disabled and non-disabled passengers, analyzing effects of station layout and evacuation factors.

Findings

Wheelchair-assisted evacuees take longer to evacuate.

Station layout impacts evacuation time.

Efficiency improvements are needed for non-assisted evacuees.

Abstract

Metro systems are part of major transportation systems for big cities. Evacuation is a key challenge for metro systems in case of fire or terrorist attacks. In case of evacuation, wheelchair-assisted evacuees might take a longer time. In order to understand the effect of assisted and non-assisted evacuees on evacuation, a simulation is conducted in this study. Platform evacuation and train evacuation simulation are done. A train load survey is conducted to understand the number of evacuees inside a train. Two different layouts of stations are considered, underground island-type platforms and elevated platforms. Simulation of wheelchair-assisted and non-assisted evacuees is done. Design of experiment is used to create full factorial and fractional factorial designs to take input of different factors in simulation. The main factors affecting the total evacuation time are calculated using the design of experiment. It is found that wheelchair-assisted evacuees take longer time than non-assisted evacuees in both underground and elevated station platforms. It is also found that efforts are needed to increase the speed of the non-assisted evacuees also.