Simulating the Effects of Gate Machines on Crowd Traffic Based on the Modified Social Force Model

Abstract

Gate machines, such as ticket gates in stations and secure gates in office buildings, are very common in people’s daily lives. On the one hand, the passage between the gates is not wide enough for pedestrians to pass through, which may affect the traffic efficiency of the crowd; on the other hand, the gates make pedestrians move more orderly and smooth and may speed up evacuation. Whether the gates benefit or hinder the movement and evacuation of a crowd is not clear for now. This paper studies the effects of gate machines on crowd traffic based on simulations using the modified social force model. Three simulation scenarios are considered, including the absence of any gate machines, the presence of gate machines without invisible walls, and the presence of gate machines with invisible walls. Normal and evacuation situations are distinguished by whether or not a pedestrian pauses for a while in front of the gates. The influences of factors such as the number of passages, exit width, and the number of pedestrians on crowd traffic are analyzed. Simulation results show that for different exit widths, there is a corresponding optimal number of passages to make the evacuation efficiency of the crowd the highest. The conclusions of this paper can provide some suggestions for the setting of the gate machines and the development of evacuation strategies.