01025441

Component

Free speeds are defined as the speeds pedestrians like to walk with when they are not influenced by other nearby pedestrians. Free speeds differ among pedestrians and are influenced by the characteristics of the walking infrastructure and external conditions. Free speeds and their distribution play an important role in many traffic flow models, but are also relevant in other applications, such as the design of pedestrian facilities and public transport timetables. The fact that lots of observations on pedestrian speeds are described in literature stresses its importance. However, pedestrian free speeds cannot be observed, since the observer does not know whether the pedestrian is actually walking with his or her free speed or not. Free speeds based on observations are therefore usually underestimated. However, existing free speed estimation methods developed for car traffic appear to be not suited for pedestrian traffic. The aim of this research is to improve an existing method to estimate free speed distributions for car traffic in order to make it applicable for pedestrian flows. This paper does not only describe this improved estimation method, but also shows an application on pedestrian data from large-scale laboratory walking experiments, simulating different traffic conditions, such as unidirectional flows, opposite flows, and crossing flows. The approach appeared successful and may be applied for all types of pedestrian flows.

01020180

06-1666

English

13p

2006

Transportation Research Board 85th Annual Meeting

CD-ROM

Figures (5) ; References (43) ; Tables (3)

Estimation theory; Free flow speeds; Fuzzy algorithms; Pedestrians; Speed measurement

Walking speed

Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; I71: Traffic Theory

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2006 Paper #06-1666

BTRIS, TRIS, TRB

Mar 3 2006 10:45AM