Variation of Walking Speeds on a Unidirectional Walkway and on a Bidirectional Stairway
Source: Transportation Research Board
"The variation of walking speeds for passengers passing through a facility within a congested underground station is known to be an important factor influencing pedestrian route choices. This paper describes a study of walking speed reliability under uni-directional and bidirectional pedestrian flow conditions within Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway stations. The studied facilities, which include a uni-directional walkway and a bi-directional stairway, were selected for data collection and analysis. The variation in walking speed is due to increased passenger demand within the station when trains arrive. A study of the distributions of walking speed variation and relationships between average walking speed and variations of that speed was conducted based on data collected from an observation survey. It was found that for un-congested sections, when the mean walking speed decreased, the walking speed variation also decreased under both uni-directional and bi-directional pedestrian flow conditions. In addition, the walking speed variation was smallest when the pedestrian flow approached capacity. However, in congested sections, when the mean walking speed decreased, the walking speed variation increased under both uni-directional and bi-directional pedestrian flow conditions. All walking times data were proved empirically to be well presented a normal distribution. This paper presents newly developed models for walking speed reliability for the three selected pedestrian facilities. These newly developed models can be further considered in connection with pedestrian network reliability for the evacuation of railway stations."
