Exploring heterogeneous pedestrian stream characteristics at walking facilities with different angle intersections

While individuals with disabilities constitute a significant portion of the population in the United States, they are often neglected in pedestrian studies due to lack of available data. Understanding the relationships among heterogeneous pedestrian flow characteristics involving individuals with and without disabilities can improve the design and planning for walking facilities. The objective of this research is to propose a density–speed model for a bidirectional pedestrian stream and examine it for various walking environments with different intersecting angles (90°, 135°, and 180°). To calibrate the proposed model, a set of large-scale controlled walking experiments was conducted at Utah State University and various one-directional and bi-directional flow combinations were examined. The properties of the calibrated model indicated that interaction effects drop with increases in walking facility angle. Moreover, the capacity of walking facilities is reduced with increases in the structure angle. Specifically, the results revealed that 180°, 135°, and 90°operate at 78%, 79%, and 82% of maximum capacity under a balanced bi-directional flow.