ANALYSIS OF COMMUTER FLOW BEHAVIOUR ON STAIRWAYS AT METROPOLITAN TRANSIT STATION IN MUMBAI, INDIA
The number of passenger travelling by railway has increased significantly in last two decades due to rapid urbanization. The passengers are in high density within the station premises during the operation time particularly during arrival and departure of trains at urban transit stations. Pedestrian flow reaches to peak level instantaneously causing sudden change in the pedestrian behavior and may lead to unsafe pedestrian movement. The study of pedestrian flow in such situation calls for more attention in view of the likely gravity of the situation turning adverse. Hence, for the efficient design as well as effective operation, modeling of the pedestrian flow for such situation is necessary to gain important insight into the pedestrian behavior. This paper is focused on pedestrian traffic movement on stairways at busy suburban railway station. Video-graphic data is collected at two stairways at Dadar suburban train station in Mumbai. Extracted data of 1-minutes interval is used to develop Speed-Density and Flow-Density relationships for different stairways. Critical aspects of the pedestrian flow behavior observed through the models are compared with pedestrian flow characteristics and walking behavior reported in earlier studies. The analysis presented in this paper can be used as a base to understand the peculiarity of pedestrian characteristics; specifically urban commuters and can become a useful reference for future pedestrian flow study in Indian metropolitan context.