Pedestrian management strategies for improving flow dynamics in transportation hubs

Forecasts predict a strong increase of the demand of public transport facilities in the next decades, close to doubling the number of users in the "Arc lémanique" area. This increase in demand can lead to congestion and poor level-of-service inside transportation hubs. The aim of this paper is to develop control strategies which aim at guiding pedestrians in hubs and improving the flow dynamics. The objective is to guarantee adequate level-of-service throughout the infrastructure. This is achieved by influencing the locations pedestrians dwell while waiting or the activities they perform before or after using a public transport mode. Not only are "hard" strategies developed (barriers for example) but "soft" strategies like information or advertisement are also used. These measures are coupled with a dynamic assignment and demand model to simulate the effect on pedestrian flows. To quantify the impact of such management strategies, a simulation framework is developed and the results are compared to real-life data collected in the train station of Lausanne. Through this framework, pedestrian control measures can be tested and validated before being implemented in practice, and the impact of such decisions can be maximized, furthermore the performance of the facility is improved.