Influence of bottleneck on single-file pedestrian flow: Findings from two experiments*

Abstract

In order to investigate the influence of bottleneck on single-file pedestrian flow, we conduct two different bottleneck experiments. The first one is on ring road, while the second one is on straight route. For the first one, the global density is always set to be 1.5 ped/m. The corresponding critical flow rate for the bottleneck activation is about 0.57 ped/s. The data of the detectors set at different locations, including the velocities and time-headways, show that the amplitude of the oscillation of the stop-and-go waves gradually increases during the upstream propagation. Besides, when the measured flow rates are the same, the different situations in the single-file experiments with and without bottleneck are compared and discussed. For the second one, lower flow rates are used and the bottleneck is always activated. In all the runs, the system can reach one stable state, and the time needed is nearly the same. Inside the stable area, the statistics of pedestrians’ velocities keeps nearly constant in both time and space. Outside this area, when the waiting time is not long (X = 10 s), the phenomenon observed is similar to that found on ring road, e.g., the statistics of pedestrians’ velocities also gradually increases during the upstream propagation. This phenomenon is similar to that found in vehicular traffic flow, which shows the universality of different traffic flows. But when the waiting time becomes longer (X = 20 s), this situation will be broken since the actions of many pedestrians become much slower. All these results can facilitate understanding more about the influence of bottleneck on single-file pedestrian flow.