El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a bus-based public transport system that increase the effectiveness of public transportation through dedicated lanes with busways and independent stations. However, the low capacity at the stations and the high demand of the system increases the respiratory diseases risk caused by the interaction between pedestrians. This article proposes to make the main access point an entrance only and the access point at the opposite end of the platform an exit only, allowing one-way walking paths. This research is focused on the reduction of conflict points between pedestrians generated by walking flows in opposite directions. A BRT station located in the city of Lima was used as a case study for the investigation. It was identified for the peak hour that the area with the highest pedestrian interaction occurs in the station platform and boarding areas. The efficiency of the proposal is validated by using the Viswalk software. The results obtained show that the conflict points decreased by 68.5% and the pedestrian density by 45%. From that perspective, the pedestrian flows were optimized, and the risk of respiratory diseases was reduced.

Traffic safety has traditionally been measured by analyzing historical accident data, which is a reactive method where a certain number of accidents must occur in order to identify the safety problem. An alternative safety assessment method is to use proximal safety indicators that are defined as measures of accident proximity, which is considered a proactive method. With this method it is possible to detect the safety problem before the accidents have happened. To be able to detect problems in traffic situations in general, microscopic simulation is commonly used. In these models it may be possible to generate representative near-accidents, measured by proximal safety indicator techniques. A benefit of this would be the possibility to experiment with different road designs and evaluate the traffic safety level before reconstructions of the road infrastructure. Therefore has an investigation been performed to test the possibility to identify near-accidents (conflicts) in a microscopic simulation model mimicking the Traffic Conflict Technique developed by Hydén (1987). In order to perform the investigation a case study has been used where an intersection in the city center of Stockholm was studied. The intersection has been rebuilt, which made it possible to perform a before and after study. For the previous design there was a traffic safety assessment available which was carried out using the Traffic Conflict Technique. Microscopic simulation models representing the different designs of the intersection were built in PTV Vissim. In order to evaluate and measure the traffic safety in reality as well as in the microscopic simulation models, a traffic safety assessment was performed in each case. The traffic safety assessment in field for the present design was carried out as a part of this thesis. The main focus of this thesis was the road safety for vulnerable road users. The method to identify conflicts in the simulation model has been to extract raw data output from the simulation model and thereafter process this data in a Matlab program, aiming to mimic the Traffic Conflict Technique. The same program and procedure was used for both the previous and the present design of the intersection. The results from the traffic safety assessment in the simulation model have been compared to the results from the field study in order to evaluate how well microscopic simulation works as an evaluation tool for traffic safety in new designs. The comparison shows that the two methods of conflict identification cannot replace each other straight off. But with awareness of the differences between the methods, the simulation model could be used as an indication when evaluating the level of traffic safety in a road design.

In order to attract pedestrians to travel with public transport instead of private cars, the layout of interchange stations is important and should be designed in an effective way. Microscopic simulation of pedestrians can be used to evaluate different layout scenarios or a future increase in flow. The simulation software Viswalk was investigated, where the movements of pedestrians are based on a social force model,. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate simulated walking speeds for different flow levels and to investigate the effects of dividing pedestrians into types with different desired speeds. The aim was to find a desired speed distribution that can be used for different flow levels. Field studies have been performed to collect pedestrian traffic data with a video camera at Stockholm Central Station. Two disjoint flow levels were identified and used to investigate if the same desired speed distribution could be used for different flow levels. The average observed walking speed was 1.33 metres per second at the low flow level and 1.25 metres per second at the high flow level. The error was 4.5 percent between the average observed walking speed and the average simulated walking speed when the optimal desired speed distribution at the low flow level was used at the high flow level. Effects of using different desired speed distributions for different pedestrian types have also been investigated. The error between the average of the observed and the simulated walking speeds varies between 2.3 and 4.1 percent when dividing pedestrians into different types when the optimal desired speed distributions at the low flow level are used at the high flow level. A sensitivity analysis of some parameters of the social force model in Viswalk has also been performed. Several adjustments of the parameters show that some parameters had great impact of the simulated walking speeds. The final conclusion is that the parameter configuration and how the pedestrians are divided into different types affect the average simulated walking speed.

La microsimulación peatonal resulta incompatible con la realidad cuando no se considera la diversidad peatonal y sus necesidades. Asimismo, el comportamiento peatonal está relacionado con la capacidad de los espacios. Por ello, el estudio del desplazamiento peatonal ha recobrado importancia en la planificación del transporte. Cuando se desea modelar a los peatones es necesario caracterizarlos con el mayor detalle posible, sobre todo a aquellos que son más vulnerables, como las personas con alguna limitación de movilidad. Si se pudiera caracterizar a cada peatón individualmente, sería ideal, pero esto en grandes masas, sería casi imposible. Debido a ello, en este estudio se buscó clasificar a los peatones respecto a tres variables resaltantes: el espacio personal, la trayectoria y las velocidades. El caso de estudio fue el pasillo de consulta externa de un hospital, debido a su diversidad peatonal y a las condiciones del espacio. En este lugar, se establecieron seis grupos de peatones, para definir sus características propias y plasmarlas en la simulación de Viswalk, a través de cinco parámetros del modelo de Fuerza Social: Tau, Lambda Mean, Noise, A_soc_Mean y B_soc_isotropic. Como principal resultado, se lograron encontrar los valores de los cinco parámetros del modelo de Fuerza Social que cumplieran para la clasificación de peatones realizada. Después de validado el modelo, se calculó la capacidad adecuada para el espacio, el resultado fue de 102 personas, valor que resultó menor a la capacidad actual. / Pedestrian microsimulation is incompatible with reality when the diversity of pedestrians and their different needs are not considered. Likewise, the behavior of pedestrians is related to the capacity of the spaces. Therefore, the study of pedestrian displacement has regained importance in transportation planning. When you want to model pedestrians it is necessary to characterize them in as much detail as possible, especially those who are most vulnerable, such as people with some mobility limitation. If each pedestrian could be characterized individually, it would be ideal, but this in large masses would be almost impossible. For this reason, this study sought to classify pedestrians with respect to three important variables: personal space, trajectory and speeds. The case study was the external consultation hall of a hospital, due to its pedestrian diversity and the conditions of the space. In this place, six groups of pedestrians were established, to define their own characteristics and project them into the Viswalk simulation, through five parameters of the Social Force model: Tau, Lambda Mean, Noise, A_soc_Mean y B_soc_isotropic. As the main result, it was possible to find the values ​​of the five parameters of the Social Force model that complied with the pedestrian classification made. After validating the model, the adequate capacity for the space was calculated, the result was 102 people, a value that was lower than the current capacity. / Tesis

Walking speeds are an important parameter in the process of designing for example arenas, malls and station environments, to be able to make them safe and comfortable for the users. Previous studies have mainly focused on pedestrian walking speeds at zebra crossings and the results of these are the basis for traffic signal timing. The studies have also investigated the relationship between walking speed and gender, age and density of pedestrians. From the results of these studies, conclusions have been drawn that these three factors have an impact on pedestrian walking speeds. To make microsimulations of pedestrians reflect reality as well as possible, pedestrian walking speeds should be investigated at regular intervals, as walking speeds change with the ongoing change of the composition of the population. In the simulation of station environments, pedestrian speeds should also be used that have been measured in these types of environments. Alternatively, the speeds should be measured at locations near stations, rather than using speeds from zebra crossings. As a step in improving the above-mentioned microsimulations, the aim of this work is to study walking speeds at a public transport hub during rush hour. The work also focuses on connecting walking speeds to each sex and level of crowding. To achieve this goal, video recordings were performed at the exchange point between Stockholms östra and Tekniska högskolan in Stockholm, Sweden, where public transport passengers change between light rail and subway. Analysis of the video films resulted in walking speeds which were higher than those previously measured at zebra crossings. The most obvious factors explaining this are the differences in the environment where the studies were conducted and that the walking speeds in this thesis were measured during rush hour. The results show that simulations of stations and locations nearby should not be based on walking speeds measured at zebra crossings. Analysis of the video films also resulted in the calculated mean walking speed of women being marginally lower than for men. Regarding the link between density of pedestrians and their walking speeds a conclusion can be drawn that at low densities pedestrians have good opportunities to freely select their own walking speed. The freely chosen walking speed which can thus be maintained at low densities can vary widely between different individuals. At higher, unlike at lower densities, it is difficult for pedestrians to maintain a freely chosen speed due to interactions with other pedestrians. The calculated average walking speed at higher densities therefor decreases as the density increases. Interactions with other pedestrians can either mean that a pedestrian is forced to lower the speed or that he or she must walk faster to keep up with the current pace. When analyzing the video films, several other factors effecting the walking speed could be noted. Of these factors, grouping of pedestrians and if the pedestrian is using a phone or carrying luggage could be seen to decrease the pedestrian speed. These factors’ impact on walking speeds was only superficially studied in this thesis, and no reliable conclusions can therefore be drawn. Keywords: Pedestrian walking speed, public transport traffic hub, density of pedestrians, Level of