Citation

Rahman K, Abdul Ghani N, Abdulbasah Kamil A, Mustafa A, Kabir Chowdhury MA. PLoS One 2013; 8(5): e63503.

Affiliation

Mathematics Section, School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia ; Department of Statistics, School of Physical Sciences, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Public Library of Science)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0063503

PMID

23691055

PMCID

PMC3655143

Abstract

Pedestrian movements are the consequence of several complex and stochastic facts. The modelling of pedestrian movements and the ability to predict the travel time are useful for evaluating the performance of a pedestrian facility. However, only a few studies can be found that incorporate the design of the facility, local pedestrian body dimensions, the delay experienced by the pedestrians, and level of service to the pedestrian movements. In this paper, a queuing based analytical model is developed as a function of relevant determinants and functional factors to predict the travel time on pedestrian facilities. The model can be used to assess the overall serving rate or performance of a facility layout and correlate it to the level of service that is possible to provide the pedestrians. It has also the ability to provide a clear suggestion on the designing and sizing of pedestrian facilities. The model is empirically validated and is found to be a robust tool to understand how well a particular walking facility makes possible comfort and convenient pedestrian movements. The sensitivity analysis is also performed to see the impact of some crucial parameters of the developed model on the performance of pedestrian facilities.

Language: en