Simulating queuing behaviour of pedestrians in subway stations

Abstract

The aim of this study was to simulate pedestrian movements in the queuing process in subway stations using microscopic simulation models. The queuing process was divided into two stages – walking and selecting a queue, and entering a queue and waiting in that queue. To represent the boundary of these two stages, a novel queuing line concept was developed. This queuing line dynamically changes with factors such as pedestrian preference, queue shape and queue length. Furthermore, two corresponding microscopic simulation models were developed to handle those two stages on the basis of the social force model and the queuing rule, respectively. Typically, the queuing rule is determined by the desired force, the impact of the nearest pedestrian ahead in the same direction and a self-stopping mechanism. Two examples – a ticket office and a security check in a subway station – were used to verify the validity of the proposed models.