"The Application of Pedestrian Modelling" by Maria Bacon, AECOM - Edinburgh meeting of 12 February 2013

VISWALK is one of microsimulation software provided by PTV Traffic Mobility Logistics that simulates people walking step by step which take into account psychology of human walking behaviour. It simulate and analysis pedestrians and they interaction whether with each other in crowds, with the surrounded environment or with a public transport.

The software use the principles of Professor Helburg study (from Dresden University currently Zurich University) base on human walking behaviour (Social Force Model - SFM). The SFM analyses the impact of pedestrian flow on obstacles, exploring lane formation, contraflows and other aspects of spontaneous self-organisation.

Pedestrians generally seek the quickest route, which is often but not always the shortest. In the overcrowded situation (such as doorways, obstacles, corners), the modelled pedestrian have an ability to used their "dynamic potential" to change their route pattern from the shortest route to the quickest route.

Journey times of pedestrian, volumes of crowd and graphical representation of level of service might be extracted from the model. The output information may be used in managing sporting or entertainment venues and commercial centres as well as transport hubs. 2-D and 3-D views of the model are available for future videos presentation. Further version of VISWALK will be able to model groups, different types of pedestrians, luggage-trolleys, which could be use in modelling airport halls and train stations.

Click here to download a copy of Marian Bacon's presentation (Powerpoint Show format (8Mb)

Report and photograph by John Yellowlees.