AUTOMATIC TICKET BARRIERS - FIELD OBSERVATIONS, LABORATORY EVALUATION AND AN ENGINEERING APPRAISAL

A programme of research to gather information potentially useful for ticket barrier specifications was commissioned by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory from the Institute for Consumer Ergonomics and Department of Transport Technology, Loughborough University. The research comprised three main areas, these were: (I) field observations of three different types of ticket barrier; (II) laboratory evaluation of five selected ticket barriers; (III) an engineering appraisal of ticket barrier design. The field observations were taken from film of tripod and automatic barriers in use at London Transport underground stations and bi-directional tripod barriers at Glasgow central railway station. A description of the passenger sample was derived from the analysis of the film from each site. Analysis of the passengers' luggage showed that over 65% were carrying at least one item of luggage. Incidents of barrier misuse were categorised to obtain information about the problems encountered by passengers in the three transport systems. The proportion of passengers involved in misuse varied between the sites (from 3% to 16%) but problems concerning the ticket operation were the most frequent at each site. The laboratory trials to evaluate three manual barriers and two automatic (pneumatic) barriers were conducted using volunteer members of the public as subjects. The main areas investigated were; the problems encountered by first time users, the subjects' preferences for different aspects of the ticket barriers, (e.g. Ticket operation, perceived safety) and the flow rates for different subject groups and barrier operation conditions. Following the series of trials, subjects gave suggestions for improvements to the tested barrier designs. See also IRRD abstract no 246162.

• Corporate Authors:

  Loughborough University of Technology, England

  Institute For Consumer Ergonomics
  Loughborough LE113TU, Leicestershire,   England 
• Authors:
  • STROUD, P G
  • Baines, P A
• Publication Date: 1978-12

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos; Tables;
• Pagination: 184 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automatic control; Automatic fare collection; Automation; Design; Equipment; Fare collection; Fares; Passenger terminals; Payment; Public transit; Rail transit stations; Railroad stations; Rapid transit; Tests
• Uncontrolled Terms: Use
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• Old TRIS Terms: Passenger stations
• ITRD Terms: 3882: Automatic; 9011: Design (overall design); 3674: Equipment; 272: Payment; 744: Public transport; 241: Tariff; 6255: Test; 8119: United Kingdom; 9084: Use
• Subject Areas: Design; Finance; Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Railroads; Terminals and Facilities; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00312088
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Report/Paper Numbers: Monograph
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 22 1981 12:00AM