Agent-Based Evacuation Simulation from Subway Train and Platform

With many people using subways at the same time, subway stations must be appropriately designed to allow people to move smoothly during both typical operations and evacuations under emergency situations. The present study carries out an agent-based modeling (ABM) of people from both trains and platforms in a typical subway station in both normal and evacuation scenarios. Developed based on the NetLogo platform, the proposed model enables defining both normal and emergency scenarios with realistic considerations of some critical parameters and software functions. These parameters include number of trains, number of passengers, stairs, ticket gates, number of exits, passenger destination choices, possible delaying of exiting the train and station, etc. After the simulation framework is developed, comparative studies of both normal and emergency situations are conducted on a prototype subway station. Parametric investigations of some key parameters are also made and the impacts of these parameters on evacuation time and delay are discussed. Some valuable insights for understanding the potential causes of delay of evacuations and possible improvements of the subway station design in terms of emergency response are made. With the proposed modeling framework, future studies can be conducted on simulations for a specific subway station including both subway trains and platforms under both normal and extreme situations. By adopting site- and event-specific parameters of the station and emergency event, customized analyses based on the proposed model can help designing and implementing more optimized and tailored emergency response plans and strategies.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP018T Task Force on Transit Safety and Security.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Zou, Qiling
  • Fernandes, Daniel S
  • Chen, Suren
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2019-1-13 to 2019-1-17
• Date: 2019

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 5p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Delays; Disasters and emergency operations; Evacuation; Parametric analysis; Passenger trains; Simulation; Subway stations; Subways
• Subject Areas: Public Transportation; Railroads; Security and Emergencies; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01697281
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 19-00304
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:50PM