Pedestrian dynamics on slopes: Empirical analysis of level, uphill, and downhill walking

Wei Xie*, Eric Wai Ming Lee, Tao Li, Nan Jiang, Yi Ma*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

ºPedestrian safety on inclined walking facilities merits greater attention than that on level surfaces. Crowd accidents and domino effects are more likely to occur on slope walkways, especially at high crowd densities, as in the tragic case of the 2022 Itaewon Halloween crowd crush in South Korea. However, experimental investigations of the pedestrian dynamics on slopes with varying inclinations are scarce. In this study, a controlled experiment involving 48 participants was conducted to investigate the differences in pedestrian movement characteristics during level, uphill, and downhill slope walking. A wide range of slope inclinations was considered, namely 0º, 3º, 7º, 12º, 17º, and 22º. The results demonstrated that walking speeds uphill are lower than those on flat terrains, and uphill speeds decrease with increasing inclination. In contrast, increased slope inclinations do not always correspond to reduced downhill speeds. Notably, at inclinations of 3º and 7º, the downhill speed exceeds that of level walking, suggesting that a mild downhill slope can facilitate faster movement. Compared with downhill walking, pedestrians exhibit more lateral motion and significantly lower speeds (p < 0.01) when walking uphill at the same inclination. However, the average flow rate during downhill walking is lower than those observed on flat ground and uphill terrain. This difference may be attributable to the lower pedestrian density during downhill walking to reduce the likelihood of falling. These findings can enhance the understanding of pedestrian dynamics on ramps and have significant implications for the design of safer inclined walking facilities and prevention of potential disasters on such walkways. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Article number106429
JournalSafety Science
Volume172
Online published13 Jan 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. YJ202329), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72301184), a grant from CityU 7005769 and 7005895. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Research Keywords

  • Slope
  • Pedestrian dynamics
  • Controlled experiment
  • Fundamental diagram
  • Inclined walkways

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