Simulation and Optimization of Pedestrian Regular Evacuation in Comprehensive Rail Transit Hub – A Case Study in Beijing

Abstract

Extensive efforts have been made in pedestrian evacuation of urban rail transit systems, since there has emerged an increasing number of congestion problems. However, few studies focus on the comprehensive urban rail transit hubs. As a comprehensive interchange hub integrating urban railway and intercity railway lines, Beijing West Railway Station was taken as a case study object. The pedestrian evacuation characteristics were analysed first. Then, a social force-based simulation model of Beijing West Railway Station was constructed in PTV Viswalk. The model was applied to visually display a real evacuation process and help identify evacuation bottlenecks. The results showed that the risk points at different facilities had various causes and features. Furthermore, the simulation model could also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of different optimization measures as long as certain model parameters were changed beforehand.

Keywords

• rail transit
• comprehensive transportation hub
• pedestrian evacuation simulation
• ptv viswalk
• optimization measures