Bidirectional Pedestrian Stream Model with Oblique Intersecting Angle

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a model of bidirectional pedestrian streams with an oblique intersecting angle that represents the crossing interaction of pedestrians moving in different directions on a walking facility. We formulate the model based on Drake’s model in the traffic flow literature, and calibrate it using results from a set of controlled experiments in which two groups of pedestrians were asked to walk in different directions and cross on designated walkways with different levels of pedestrian flow and different intersecting angles. Their movements were video recorded, and macroscopic quantities such as speed, density, and flow were extracted to calibrate the model of bidirectional pedestrian streams. All of the parameters of the calibrated model are statistically significant at the 0.1% level.