Comparison Of Pedestrian Fundamental Diagram: A Cultural and Gender Aspect

Abstract

Study of pedestrian motion can be done by various means, like; empirical observation, conduction of controlled experiments as well as by developing pedestrian dynamics models. All these different sorts of studies are dependent on pedestrian fundamental diagrams to a great extent. So, in this thesis it is aimed at studying pedestrian flow at fundamental level. But because of a lot complexities and stochasticities involved in pedestrian flow systems, it is not possible to study pedestrian flow fundamentals completely in unbiased way. Literature on pedestrian flow studies also supports the fact, yielding wide varying fundamental diagrams by various researchers. So, in this study efforts are made to avoid all sorts of disturbing influences on the basic study of pedestrian flow. In a similar earlier study, pedestrian fundamental diagrams of two widely varied cultures namely, Indian and German are compared statistically and significant differences were found. Motivated by that study, in this thesis it is targeted to see whether these differences are diluted in less varied cultures. To do this, two cultures are chosen; from two places far distance apart within India, namely, Kanpur and Rourkela. In addition, also, in the same thesis work, it is aimed at observing whether pedestrian fundamental diagram is different between subjects of same gender and a mix of male and female pedestrians in alternate positions. To nullify the disturbing factor, like, pedestrians moving side by side, overtaking, tail-back-effect, etc., a very simple pedestrian flow system is used in which pedestrians move in a single file under closed boundary condition. In this study, it is found that; fundamental diagram from Rourkela is significantly different than that from Kanpur. Similar is the case for the other set of experiment, i.e., fundamental diagram between same gender pedestrians and mixed gender pedestrians are also significantly different.