Understanding the Characteristics of Pedestrians when Passing Obstacles of Different Sizes: An Experimental Study

Authors

  • Abdullah N Alhawsawi Melbourne School of Engineering and IT, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia and Hajj and Umrah Institute, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
  • Majid Sarvi Melbourne School of Engineering and IT, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
  • Emad Felemban Hajj and Umrah Institute, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
  • Abbas Rajabifard Melbourne School of Engineering and IT, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
  • Jianyu Wang Melbourne School of Engineering and IT, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17815/CD.2021.114

Keywords:

obstacles evading behaviour, pedestrian sway, walking behaviour, pedestrian dynamics

Abstract

The aim of this study is to understand the collective movements of individuals and to observe how individuals interact within a physical environment in a crowd dynamic, which has drawn the attention of many researchers. We conducted an experimental study to observe interactions in the collective motions of people and to identify characteristics of pedestrians when passing obstacles of different sizes (bar-shaped, 1.2 m, 2.4 m, 3.6 m and 4.8 m), going through one narrow exit and employing three different flow rates in walking and running conditions. According to the results of our study, there were no differences in collision-avoidance behaviour of pedestrians when walking or running. The pedestrians reacted early to the obstacles and changed the direction in which they were walking by quickly turning to the left or to the right. In terms of the speed of the pedestrians, the average velocity was significantly affected while performing these tasks, decreasing as the size of the obstacle increased; therefore, the size of obstacles will affect flow and speed levels. Travel time was shorter when participants were in the medium-flow rate experiments. In terms of the distance of each individual’s travel, our data showed that there was no significant difference in all the flow rate experiments for both speed levels. Our results also show that when the pedestrians crossed an obstacle, the lateral distance averaged from 0.3 m to 0.7 m, depending on the flow rate and speed level. We then explored how the body sways behaved while avoiding obstacles. It is observed that the average sway of the body was less in the high-speed conditions compared to the low-speed conditions – except for the HF & 4.8 m experiment. These results are expected to provide an insight into the characteristics of the behaviour of pedestrians when avoiding objects, and this could help enhance agent-based models.

Author Biographies

Abdullah N Alhawsawi, Melbourne School of Engineering and IT, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia and Hajj and Umrah Institute, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

The University of Melbourne Transport Engineering Group,  Engineering & IT

Majid Sarvi, Melbourne School of Engineering and IT, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

The University of Melbourne Department of Infrastructure Engineering

Emad Felemban, Hajj and Umrah Institute, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia,

Abbas Rajabifard, Melbourne School of Engineering and IT, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

The University of Melbourne Faculty of Engineering and IT Department of Infrastructure Engineering

Jianyu Wang, Melbourne School of Engineering and IT, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

The University of Melbourne Department of Infrastructure Engineering

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Published

03.10.2021

How to Cite

Alhawsawi, A. N., Sarvi, M., Felemban, E., Rajabifard, A., & Wang, J. (2021). Understanding the Characteristics of Pedestrians when Passing Obstacles of Different Sizes: An Experimental Study. Collective Dynamics, 6, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.17815/CD.2021.114

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