Comparative study of pedestrians’ movement on different types of pedestrian sidewalks in Sikkim, Gangtok

Abstract

The paper aims at comparing between movement of pedestrians over an elevated/access-controlled sidewalk, a horizontal at-grade sidewalk and a gradient sidewalk and also analyses the pedestrian flow characteristics such as age, gender and carrying of baggage. The pedestrian data were collected using videography technique at three different types of sidewalks (viz. elevated, at-grade horizontal and gradient) in Gangtok, Sikkim. Basic relationships between speed, flow rate and density were plotted in order to understand the behaviour of pedestrians over the three different facilities. Moreover, in order to compare and understand if a significant difference exists between the various parameters, statistical tests were carried out. It could be visualized that walking speed of pedestrians is highly influenced by the age, gender, location and gradient. The elevated/access-controlled sidewalk is seen to have a higher flow rate in comparison with the gradient and at-grade horizontal sidewalks. The result of the statistical tests which are carried out in order to check whether there is any significant difference between the various pedestrian groups, indicate that a significant difference exists between the pedestrians based on age and gender; while the presence or the absence of baggage and direction of travel does not affect the walking speed significantly. Moreover, the jam density and capacity are also predicted based on Greenshields’ model. Results indicate that a greater jam density and higher flow rate are observed for elevated sidewalk in comparison with the gradient and at-grade horizontal sidewalks due to its location.