Studies on Pedestrian Fundamental Diagrams: Field Observation and Controlled Experiments

Abstract

The simplest form of transportation is walking and it is one of the basic mobility. To understand pedestrian dynamics a number of empirical studies and a series of experiments have been done earlier. Prediction of pedestrian movements is valuable in many contexts as pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users. Under different situations pedestrians behave differently. The required data are collected from both field and experimental analysis considering mix gender pedestrian conditions. This study was conducted in two phases, in the first phase, we conducted the study and the related research works on pedestrian movement i.e. collection of field data and its representation of fundamental diagrams. In the second phase, the pedestrian motion was analyzed under experimental observation which was conducted under ideal conditions, the absence of uncontrollable disturbing factors such as side by side pedestrian movement, tail back effect and overtaking etc. The experimental set up for simple single file pedestrian flow with boundary condition was done in which various disturbing factors are avoided in the experimental studies. Fundamental diagrams of speed-density, speed-flow, flow-density and distance headway-speed were compared with the data collected from field observations. Differences of pedestrian flow in between field observation and conducted experimental observation are studied through hypothesis testing.