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Estimating Escalator vs Stairs Choice Behavior in the Presence of Entry Railing: A Field Study

  • Transportation Engineering
  • Published:
KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering Aims and scope

Abstract

Entry railings at escalator/stairs system are intervention measures for passenger flow and play a crucial role in local infrastructure optimization in mass transit stations. This paper presents an analysis of the choice between escalators and stairs with mixed logit models, by considering for the first time the length of the entry railing as one of the crucial parameters. Based on a pilot questionnaire survey, a large-scale field study was conducted in Changsha, China and a sample of 11010 passengers was drawn. The datasets of the whole sample and the grouped samples were applied for model calibrations, respectively. The results indicate that the sensitivity to the railing length show significant heterogeneity in preferences, as well as middle age, luggage carrying and density in front of the escalator (ESDEN). All models are validated to have good prediction accuracy. The mixed model outperforms the binary model in predicting the stairs usage, but slightly overestimates the escalator usage. The analysis reinforces earlier findings showing that lengthening the railing (2.5 ∼ 3.9 m) reduces the sensitivity of individual diversity to dynamic ESDEN, thus further enhancing the predictive ability by 4.35%. Our results provide unique insights for planners and policymakers on designing and managing transportation systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, PR China

    Yifan Zhuang & Han Cheng

  2. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Str. 77, 50937, Köln, Germany

    Yifan Zhuang & Andreas Schadschneider

  3. State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, Collaborative Innovation Center for Urban Public Safety, University of Science and Technology of China, Huangshan Road 443, Hefei, 230026, PR China

    Lizhong Yang

Authors
  1. Yifan Zhuang
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  2. Andreas Schadschneider
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  3. Han Cheng
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  4. Lizhong Yang
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Correspondence to Lizhong Yang.

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Zhuang, Y., Schadschneider, A., Cheng, H. et al. Estimating Escalator vs Stairs Choice Behavior in the Presence of Entry Railing: A Field Study. KSCE J Civ Eng 22, 5203–5214 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-1630-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-1630-6

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