Transactions on Transport Sciences X:X
Investigation on Behavioral Attributes of Pedestrians at Railway Stairways
- a. Former M.Tech Student, Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Rourkela, India, Email: jagannathpattanaik1989@gmail.com
- b. Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Rourkela, India, Email: chattaraju@nitrkl.ac.in
- c. Research Scholar, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi, India, Email: phdcee10051.20@bitmesra.ac.in
- d. Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Usha Martin University, Ranchi, India, Email: aarohikumar.munshi@umu.ac.in
- e. Assistant Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi, India, ORCID:0000-0002-8674-9148
The objective of the present study is to statistically assess pedestrian activity in various railway transit stairway facilities within a railway station as a contrasting stage. In the four study areas of Bhubaneswar, Bhadrak, Lucknow, and Kazipet, pedestrian attributes are categorised based on age, gender, and physical activities (with or without luggage). This study compa res the flow activities of pedestrians in vertical movements, such as bi-directional routes, between males and females. The analysis evaluated maximum space values of 0.91 and 0.84 m2/ped. in Bhadrak and Bhubaneswar, respectively. The increase in the dimension of the pedestrian facility resulted in an increase in available space for pedestrian movement, but optimum density was confirmed with a reduced maximum flow rate. Bi-directional flow on a stairway facility controls the free flow speed and space available to high-density pedestrian activities, implying that the pedestrian flow in the current analysis is slightly lower than that of earlier studies. The presence of people in multiple lanes forming a queue creates a bottleneck, reduces free flow speed, and maximum flow. The maximum flow rate is confirmed to be 37.82 and 38.22 ped./min/m in both ascending and descending stairways of the selected sites. The regression model analysis for maximum flow offers a reliable estimation by considering a congested pedestrian environment, unlike the standard parameters used in crowd dynamics modelling.
Keywords: Railway transit stairways, Pedestrian attributes, Bi-directional flow, bottleneck, Level of service (LOS)
Received: December 11, 2024; Revised: August 12, 2025; Accepted: September 23, 2025; Prepublished online: November 15, 2025
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