aral voskamp - congestion among pedestrians: why this subject and why at the ns

Aral Voskamp

MSc thesis: Influence of bottlenecks in the station of Utrecht Centraal on pedestrian route choice

MSc thesis: Congestion among pedestrians

Why this subject and why at the NS?

Stationsontwikkeling

Hectische NS-week

MSc thesis: Influence of bottlenecks in the station of Utrecht Centraal on pedestrian route choice 3/27

Presentation outline

Topic for MSc thesis: Influence of bottlenecks in the station

of Utrecht Centraal on pedestrian route choice

•  Finding a topic

•  Combination of NS + TU

•  About NS stations

•  About the research


Finding a topic

Finding a topic

1.  Determine goal

2.  What suits you?

3.  How to find what suits you


Finding a topic

1.  Determine your goal

•  Why: to find a topic that suits you

•  How: take time to think

Me: I didn’t want to struggle with my thesis L

•  Have fun

•  No delay

•  Always know what to do

•  Go for the best result


Finding a topic

2. What suits you?

•  Think about courses / projects / work that you like

•  Talk to different people

Me:

•  Challenging subject -> maybe PhD?

•  Good result & progress -> good supervisors

•  Do research that will be used in practice -> company

•  Have fun, nice colleagues

•  Flexibility and freedom


Finding a topic

3. How to find what suits you?

•  Choose the people that can help you

•  Take time for orientation

Me:

•  Shared my goals with Prof. Hoogendoorn

•  Visited 4 companies that sounded cool

•  Learnt that all subjects suited me

•  Chose the company that suited me best


Combination NS - TU

Combination NS – TU

• Organisation

• What’s in it for me?


Combination NS - TU

Organisation

•  Schedule: 1 day TU, 4 days NS

TU:

•  Academic supervision (content, report)

NS:

•  Process supervision (planning, work structure)

•  Provide neccesary equipment

•  Enable measurement in station locations of interest


Combination NS - TU

What’s in it for me?

• A great view over Utrecht CS

• Measure anything I can defend

• Negotiate with commercial parties

• Learn to know the company NS

• A minor financial support

• Cool experiments J


About NS stations

NS Holding: 26.500 employees

•  NS Reizigers

•  Nedtrain

•  NS Hispeed

•  Abellio

•  NS Stations


About NS stations

NS Stations

•  Retail & Services

•  Keten: BTM, (OV-)bike, Walk, Car

•  Transfer: from Keten to train

•  Top 50 stations

•  NSPs: New Key Projects

•  Focus: customer


Reliability

Ease

Speed

Comfort

Leisure

1.  Trust: Safe trip, do what is expected and promised

2. Traveltime door to door: the quicker, the better

3. Mental effort: no difficulties along the way

4. Physical effort: Comfortable journey

5. Emotions: Experience valuable time

Social Security

‘must’: Quick journey

‘lust’: Relaxed travelling

Piramid of wishes


Travellers desire: Transfer

Transfer: the entire area between train door and the next modality (and vice-verca)

B/T/M

Bike

Walk

Car

Stationsontwikkeling Station development

Expected demand in 2020 per day: 250.000

Stationsontwikkeling Station development



UTRECHT CENTRAAL



About the research

•  Introduction Utrecht Centraal

•  Equipment for measurement

•  Plan for measurement

•  Research question:

What is the influence of bottlenecks in the station of Utrecht

Centraal on route choice of pedestrians?


About the research: Utrecht Centraal

Daily pedestrian demand at Utrecht Centraal

•  164,000 travellers board / alight trains

•  59,000 travellers change trains

•  15,000 through traffic (!)

Modal split

•  Commute / business: 49%

•  School / study: 29%

•  Social / leisure: 27%


Station in 2008


OV-terminal in the future


About the research: Utrecht Centraal

Traffic situation in central hall

•  150,000 Peds / day

•  Growth -> Construction

•  10 Bottlenecks -> Escalators

•  Flow waves

Relevance

•  Traffic safety

•  Station services


Stationshal 2010


About the research

Equipment for measurement

•  CCB: flow, density, speed (video based)

•  Flow validation

•  Density, speed not used

•  Bluetooth: routes

•  7-10% of population

•  Detection at multiple scan locations


About the research

CCB flow validation

•  Traces

•  Counter lines

•  Count video images


About the research

Results of validation

•  Error dependant of flow

•  Influence of flow stability

•  CCB (so far!) only applicable in selected station locations


About the research

Plan for route measurement

•  9x CCB, 4x Video, 2x CCB

•  2 bottlenecks: 1 escalator, 1 level walkway

Central Hall

(At 18-19)

Platform

18-19


About the research

Time to come

•  Measure routes

•  Impact of congestion on route choice

•  Impact of bottleneck type

aral voskamp - congestion among pedestrians: why this subject and why at the ns

Education

station of utrecht centraal

influence of bottlenecks

pedestrian route choice

stationof utrecht centraal

route choice of pedestrians

utrecht csmeasure

station of utrechtcentraal

freedommsc thesis