Considering the actual situation of separating pedestrian flow in T-shaped passage, the guide sign is set to guide the pedestrians and subconscious strength is introduced to show the effect of guide sign. Pedestrian subconscious strength model is established, and the subconscious strength calculation result is added to the pedestrian simulation model which is based on cellular automata. On the platform of MATLAB software, separating pedestrian flow simulation with the effect of guide sign is realized. Simulations indicate that, compared with the separating pedestrian flow without guide sign, the efficiency of pedestrians passing with guide sign is higher. Analyzing the effect of guide sign in different positions, the suitable position of guide sign is obtained.
T-shaped passage is the common pedestrian facilities in the hub. With the different walking directions, pedestrians would wave in T-shaped passage, and the crowing phenomenon may happen in some time [
At present, many studies have been made on pedestrian flow at different cases, for example, pedestrian flow simulation in bidirectional passage [
For improving the efficiency of pedestrians passing, setting the guide sign is the usually used method. Xiong et al. study the impact of traffic sign on pedestrian walking behavior, and the one-way pedestrian flow has been simulated based on cellular automata [
In this paper, we transfer the effect of guide sign into the subconscious strength and add the subconscious strength to the pedestrian simulation model which is based on cellular automata, and in this way, the effect of guide sign in separating pedestrian flow is simulated.
There are four assumptions that have been made in the separating pedestrian flow simulation.
All the pedestrians have the same expectation speed.
It is without considering pedestrian individual difference.
The sight distance of the pedestrian is 6 m, and all the pedestrians are the same.
All the pedestrians are influenced by guide sign; that is to say, all pedestrians have the subconscious behavior to walk along the left-hand or right-hand side with the effect of guide sign.
Assume a T-shaped passage which is composed of main passage and branch passage shown in Figure
Simulation scenario of T-shaped passage.
The floor field has been proposed many years ago, and it has been widely used in pedestrian flow simulation [
Pedestrians move from cell
Considering the phenomenon that pedestrians tend to keep a certain distance from the boundary [
Only with the static floor field, the problem of “dead end” may appear, meaning that pedestrians moving in opposite directions will get stuck into the same cell, even though there are other cells available nearby. In the walking process, the pedestrian would try to avoid the densely populated area for comfortable walking. Considering this, the dynamic floor field is introduced as follows:
The guide sign is set to reduce the pedestrian conflicts, and the position of guide sign is shown in Figure
Schematic diagram of the position of guide sign.
When pedestrians arrive at the guide zone, under the effect of guide sign, LP (RP) generate the subconscious behavior to walk along the left-hand (right-hand) side. The subconscious strength
In the guide zone, when the distance between the LP (RP) and left (right) boundary of main passage is larger, the subconscious of LP (RP) to walk along left-hand (right-hand) side is stronger; namely, the value of
The subconscious strength
The subconscious strength
The distance between LP (RP) and down boundary of branch passage is also the main influence factor for subconscious strength. When the distance between LP (RP) and down boundary of branch passage is larger, the subconscious of LP (RP) to walk along left-hand (right-hand) side is smaller; namely, the value of
When we assume that
The curve of the subconscious strength
The curve of the subconscious strength
Cellular automata Von Neumann motion rule [
Von Neumann motion rule.
Transition probability.
With the cellular automata Von Neumann motion rule, the transition probability of pedestrian without guide sign is calculated as follows:
The transition probability of pedestrian with guide sign is calculated as follows:
According to relevant research [
Separating pedestrian flow simulation is realized on the platform of MATLAB software. Separating pedestrian flow simulation process without and with guide sign is, respectively, shown in Figures
The simulation of separating pedestrian flow without guide sign. (a) LP and RP are generated at the down origin of main passage; (b) LP and RP arrive at the waving zone and interweave; (c) LP and RP arrive at the exit and walk away.
The simulation of separating pedestrian flow with guide sign. (a) LP and RP are generated at the down origin of main passage; (b) LP and RP see the guide sign and generate the subconscious behavior; (c) LP and RP arrive at the exit and walk away.
In the simulation, there are three stages without and with guide sign, respectively.
With the effect of guide sign, the pedestrians see the guide sign and generate the subconscious behavior. LP tend to walk along the left-hand side, and RP tend to walk along the right-hand side. When pedestrians walk away from the guide zone and arrive at the branch passage, the subconscious behavior disappears.
In the simulation of separating pedestrian flow without guide sign, the “X” shaped separating pedestrian flow appears in the waving zone (see Figure
Assuming that the rate of pedestrian generation is constant and taking 50 times independent simulation experiments, when the pedestrian flow is stable, the number of pedestrians passing the passage during 200 time-steps is shown in Figure
The number of pedestrians passing the passage without and with guide sign.
From Figure
With the constant rate of pedestrian generation, we analyze the influence of the position of guide sign for the efficiency of pedestrians passing. Taking 50 times independent simulation experiments, with different position of guide sign, the change of mean number of pedestrians passing is shown in Figure
The mean number of pedestrians passing the passage with different position of guide sign.
In the separating pedestrian flow simulation without and with guide sign, when the distance between guide sign and the down boundary of branch passage is less than 2 m, the difference of the number of pedestrians passing the passage is small. In the separating pedestrian flow simulation with guide sign, with the increasing of the distance between guide sign and the down boundary of branch passage, the conflicts reduce and the number of pedestrians passing the passage increases. When the distance between guide sign and down boundary of branch passage is bigger than 4 m, the difference in the number of pedestrians passing the passage is no longer increasing. It indicates that when we set the guide sign, the distance between guide sign and down boundary of branch passage is suitable for bigger than 4 m.
With the effect of guide sign, pedestrians generate the subconscious behavior for walking along the left-hand or right-hand side. Subconscious strength is introduced to show the effect of guide sign. Pedestrian subconscious strength is added to the pedestrian simulation model which is based on cellular automata. Separating pedestrian flow simulation with the effect of guide sign is realized. In the separating pedestrian flow simulation of T-shaped passage, compared with the separating pedestrian flow without guide sign, the efficiency of pedestrians passing the passage is improved with the effect of guide sign. Through many independent simulation experiments, we analyze the changing of the efficiency of pedestrians passing the passage with the changing position of guide sign, and suitable distance between guide sign and the down boundary of branch passage is obtained.
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 51278221 and 51378076) and the Science Technology Development Project of Jilin Province, China (Grant no. 20140204027SF).