Pedestrian flow characteristics and level of service on dissimilar facilities: A critical review

Abstract

Flow characteristics and Level of Service (LOS) are two terms which are highly correlated, where the flow characteristics of a particular pedestrian or a group of pedestrians over a facility greatly influence the level of service of that facility. This paper does an exhaustive review of the flow characteristics and level of service and how different factors are observed to influence the movement over different types of pedestrian facilities. Previous attempts have been made by different researchers to explore pedestrian flow characteristics and level of service, but such attempts were done separately and not in a combined manner. As mentioned above it is extremely important to study both flow characteristics and level of service together as it allows for a better understanding of the facility. The review highly focusses on the studies which were conducted facility wise using either qualitatively or quantitatively techniques in Western as well as Asian countries. It was observed that researchers mostly used single regime approach to capture uni- and bi-directional movement to develop fundamental relationships. Age, gender, width, attire, gradient and group size were some of the major factors that were observed to affect average walking speeds. To develop LOS, videography technique was more preferred in the western countries while questionnaire survey was more used in the Asian countries. For the qualitative survey, safety, comfort, accessibility and traffic control were common parameters chosen, while space, flow and delay were mostly used to define quantitative measures. Critical assessments are made, and research gaps are identified as well. The study shows that it is of utmost importance that both flow characteristics and level of service are studied together as it allows a better understanding of the current existing scenario as well as it captures the actual pedestrian movements over that particular pedestrian facility. Moreover, recommendations are also made which might be of utmost relevance to future researchers who might want to use the substance of this paper in order to arrive at different decisions on how to conduct data collection and analyse such data accordingly under different conditions and over different facilities.