ARTICLE IN PRESS

Safety Science xxx (2008) xxxxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Safety Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ssci

Crowding in platform staircases of a subway station in China during rush hours

C.S. Jiang a, Y.F. Deng a, C. Hu b, H. Ding b, W.K. Chow c,*
a

China Academy of Safety Science and Technology, No. 17, Huixin Xijie, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, China
Beijing Municipal Institute of Labor Protection, No. 55 Taoranting Road, Suanwu District, Beijing 100054, China
Research Centre for Fire Engineering, Department of Building Services Engineering, Area of Strength: Fire Safety Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
HungHom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
b
c

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 17 October 2007
Received in revised form 11 August 2008
Accepted 3 October 2008
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Subway
Staircase
Evacuation
Observation
Computer simulation
Maximum ow capacity

a b s t r a c t
Crowding during the morning peak hours at a platform staircase in a subway station in China was studied
in this paper. Passenger ow was surveyed with normal evacuation time recorded. The evacuation process was simulated with the software buildingEXODUS. Predicted results on the total evacuation time
and maximum ow capacity of the selected staircase were compared with the eld observations. Two
parameters, the width of staircase utilized per person and the maximum upstairs walking speed used
in the software were identied to be noticeably different from the eld studies. Predictions agreed better
with the observations after tuning these two parameters. It is concluded that the evacuation simulation
software can be applied for safety design with appropriate tuning on the key parameters through eld
tests.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Mass transit is the key transport means for big cities all over the
world (Miclea et al., 2007). It is developed rapidly for cities in China
including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Nanjing. Consequent to the tragic subway re (South China Morning Post, 2003)
in Daegu, Korea in 2003, safety in the subway systems is a concern
(Chow, 2004). All subway systems in China are instructed (Planning Press, 2003) to work out a safety management plan seriously.
Many research projects on subway res were then supported with
emergency evacuation identied as one of the key areas (Jiang and
Ling, 2004).
On studying emergency evacuations, computer software is the
major tool. There are reservations on using those evacuation models. Despite the theoretical limitations, input data such as human
behaviour for Chinese had not yet been studied systematically
(Jiang and Ling, 2004). No Chinese research data were reported in
the literature. In contrast to the overseas works (Ashel and Shields,
1999; Weckman et al., 1999), real evacuation drills without
informing the passengers in advance were difcult to conduct.
There are big concerns on such drills due to safety reasons.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2766 5843; fax: +852 2765 7198.
E-mail addresses: bewkchow@polyu.edu.hk, beelize@polyu.edu.hk (W.K. Chow).

Therefore, only limited eld surveys on the behavioural characteristics can be conducted. Very few local data are available on justifying the evacuation models.
A eld survey was carried out during the morning peak hours at
a subway station to deduce some results for evacuation simulations. Under such crowded conditions, the moving speed of people
would decrease. This scenario is very similar to that in emergency
evacuation. Further, crowding locations for a subway station were
observed to be at the platform staircases. In-depth investigation on
crowding in this busy station was reported.

2. The station
An interchange station between two subway lines in a big city
of China was selected. The layout of the station is shown in
Fig. 1. The daily passenger ow is very large during the morning
and evening. There is a peak ow during the morning rush hours.
The east staircase of the platform is the only passageway for
interchanging lines. The staircase is 5.6 m wide with two parts,
each of 13 steps as shown in Fig. 2. The step is 0.145 m high and
0.315 m deep. The landing in the middle is 1.8 m deep.
Crowding was found at this staircase as shown in Fig. 3. Many
passengers stayed there when two trains heading opposite directions arrived at the same time. The intervals between train departures are short and so such crowding was found during morning
peak hours.

0925-7535/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.10.003

Please cite this article in press as: Jiang, C.S. et al., Crowding in platform staircases of a subway station in China during rush hours, Safety
Sci. (2008), doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.10.003

ARTICLE IN PRESS
2

C.S. Jiang et al. / Safety Science xxx (2008) xxxxxx

The following parameters were recorded in the eld survey:

 The time at which the two opposite trains arrived, and their time
intervals.
 Average number of passengers left through each door of the
train.
 The number of passengers utilizing the selected staircase.
 The time period for which crowding persisted at the lower part
of the staircase when two opposite trains arrived at the same
time.
 The number of passengers going out through the upper part of
the staircase within the period with the highest density of people at the staircase.

Fig. 1. Layout of the station.

In evacuation simulations, initial location of individual persons

had to be assigned. The simulation began when passengers started
to alight through the train doors. The physical and psychological
characteristics of the passengers waiting to be evacuated would
be taken as input parameter in the simulation. Such information
is difcult to deduce from the observations. The number and characteristics of passengers alighted from each train were different.
Therefore, input parameters for simulation cannot be exactly the
same as the eld survey. However, the resultant movement patterns are similar. The overall ow rate at the staircase, maximum
ow capacity and other details would be analyzed to justify the
predicted results. Whether computer simulations are reasonable
and feasible at the design stage can be illustrated.
4. Field observations

Fig. 2. East staircase at the station.

The passenger ow and the crowded condition at the staircase

during the morning peak hours from 7:10 am to 8:30 am on 23
September 2004 were recorded.
The train heading direction A always arrived rst at this station.
The train heading the opposite direction B arrived at about 10 s later. About 25 s after the arrival of the train heading direction A,
the rst passenger reached the lower part of the staircase. Crowding was observed 15 s after the arrival of the train heading direction B. The crowding time depended on the number of
passengers alighted and the number of trains arrived.
During the period with peak ow of passengers at about
7:40 am to 8:10 am, an average of 24 passengers alighted through
each door of the train heading direction B from 10 to 30 s. An average of 4.2 passengers alighted through each door of the train heading direction A from 0 to 15 s. The two opposite trains arrived

Table 1
Passenger ow observed at the staircase on 23 September 2004.

Fig. 3. Crowding at the staircase during morning peak hours.

3. Objectives of the eld study

The objectives of the eld study are to understand the crowding
conditions, to extract relevant data for design evacuation simulation purposes, and to justify the predicted results. The total number of passengers at that staircase, and the waiting time at the
lower staircase under crowded conditions when two trains arrive
at the same time would be studied.

Start
timea

End
time

7:32:16
7:35:20
7:38:25
7:41:45
7:44:57
7:47:15
8:02:55
8:23:25
8:26:11
8:32:17

7:34:30
7:37:10
7:40:25
7:43:35
7:47:50
7:49:20
8:04:56
8:25:00
8:28:00
8:34:30

Number of
passengers

Time
persisted
(s)

Number of
passengers
passing
through per
minute

Average number
of passengers
passing through
per minute

540
571
671
649
567
620
702
470
580
540

134
110
120
110
173
135
121
95
109
133

241
311
335
354
197
275
348
297
319
244

292

a
The start time represents the time when the rst passenger stepped on the
staircase.
b
The end time represents the time when the last passenger stepped on the
staircase.

Please cite this article in press as: Jiang, C.S. et al., Crowding in platform staircases of a subway station in China during rush hours, Safety
Sci. (2008), doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.10.003

ARTICLE IN PRESS
3

C.S. Jiang et al. / Safety Science xxx (2008) xxxxxx

Table 3
Speed of walking upstairs and downstairs used in buildingEXODUS 4.0.

Start
time

Number of
passengers

Time
persisted (s)

Number of passengers
passing through
per minute

Maximum
ow capacity

7:32
7:35
7:38
7:40
7:45
7:47
8:00
8:02
8:05

590
580
620
705
675
720
865
695
735

107
105
116
130
117
130
151
124
128

331
331
320
325
346
332
343
336
344

346

together for nine times from 7:30 am to 8:30 am. Key information
on the eld observations on that typical day is summarized in Table 1.
To study the maximum ow capacity of the staircase, eld
observation was carried out on 5 February 2006 during the morning peak hours from 7:30 am to 8:10 am. Again, two trains heading
opposite directions arrived at the same time for nine times. Two
staff members were assigned at the upper part of the staircase to
count the number of passengers coming up from the staircase.
The timing and counting started when the upper staircase became
crowded; and ended when the crowd disappeared. The results are
summarized in Table 2.
From the eld observations on two separate days, up to 1011
passengers were standing on the same step at an instance. The
maximum passenger density was observed at the staircase. As
the width of the staircase was 5.6 m, the width utilized per person
was about 0.5 m.
5. Evacuation simulation
A scenario was simulated:
The arrival times of the two opposite trains were taken to be the
same as the observations. The train heading direction B arrived
10 s later after the train heading direction A arrived.
The number of passengers alighted per door was also set with
reference to the eld observations. On average, 24 passengers
alighted through each door from the train heading direction B in
a period of 20 s. 4.2 passengers alighted through each door from
the train heading direction A in a period of 15 s. There were four
doors per car and six cars for each train. Therefore, a total of 707
passengers alighted from the two trains. Mobility difculties were
not considered in the simulation.
The software buildingEXODUS 4.0 (Galea et al., 2004) was selected as the simulation tool. It can be used to simulate both emergency evacuation and normal pedestrian circulation in the built
environment. Three preparation steps are necessary to make a simulation. The rst step is to dene the geometry of the building
environment to be simulated. The second step is to dene the
occupancy of the geometry, including the initial distribution of
the occupants and the individual characteristics of the occupants
such as gender, age, response time and walking speed range on different terrain. The third step is to dene the main features of the
specic evacuation or circulation conditions to be simulated in
the current scenario, i.e. the characteristics of the emergency
resulting into the evacuation, the different availability of the exits,
etc.
The upstairs walking speed of people and the width of staircase
utilized per person were based on the result of Fruin (1971) in the
software. The default value of walking speed in the software was
used. Under normal conditions, the maximum horizontal movement for a young man is 1.8 ms1. The maximum upstairs walking

Age (yrs)

Sex

Average speed downstairs

(ms1)

Average speed upstairs

(ms1)

<30

Male
Female

1.01
0.755

0.67
0.635

3050

Male
Female

0.86
0.665

0.63
0.59

>50

Male
Female

0.67
0.595

0.51
0.485

speed is 0.67 ms1. Maximum walking speeds for different population groups on stairs simulated in buildingEXODUS 4.0 are listed in
Table 3 (Galea et al., 2004).
Width of staircase utilized per person was suggested to be
0.76 m by Fruin (1971). However, the width of staircase utilized
per person was observed to be about 0.5 m. Therefore, this observed value of 0.5 m was used in the simulation.
6. Overall evacuation
The predicted passenger ow rate through the staircase is
shown in Fig. 4.
In the simulation, the rst passenger reached the east staircase
3 s after the train heading direction A arrived as in Fig. 5a. Crowding occurred at the staircase at 27 s as in Fig. 5b. The last passenger
stepped on the east staircase at 167 s as in Fig. 5c. This person
walked passed through it at 199 s.
The predicted time from which the rst passenger reached the
staircase to the last passenger reaching the east staircase was
164 s. The predicted values together with the eld surveyed data
in Table 1 are plotted in Fig. 6. It can be observed from the gure
that the predicted average ow rate is 259 persons/min (i.e. 707/
(164  60) persons/min). This value falls within the range of the
observed data. Therefore, the predictions agree well with observations, though 11.3% lower than the observed average value of
292 persons/min.
From Table 4, the predicted time for the rst passenger
reached the lower part of the staircase and crowding observed
at the lower part of the staircase were very close to the eld survey results.
7. Maximum ow capacity of the staircase
The observed data on maximum ow capacity in Table 2 can be
compared with the predicted values. From the predicted evacuation rate curve in Fig. 4, the evacuation rate was roughly constant.
800

T4 = 199 s

700

Number of passengers

Table 2
Observations on 5 February 2006.

T3 = 167 s
600
500
400
300
200

T2 = 27 s
T1 = 3 s

100
0
0

40

80

120

160

Time / s
Fig. 4. Predicted ow rate at the staircase.

Please cite this article in press as: Jiang, C.S. et al., Crowding in platform staircases of a subway station in China during rush hours, Safety
Sci. (2008), doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.10.003

ARTICLE IN PRESS
4

C.S. Jiang et al. / Safety Science xxx (2008) xxxxxx

Fig. 5. Simulation results when a train heading direction A arrived.

This was because the staircase was already fully occupied by passengers to give the maximum ow capacity. As from Fig. 7 on the
predicted number of passengers evacuated in 5 s interval, the evacuation rate kept constant between 65 s and 195 s.
The predicted evacuation rates from 65 s to 195 s are plotted together with the observed data in Fig. 8. Based on the observations,
the maximum ow capacity is 5.5881 persons/s, or 335.3 persons/
min. The predicted value is 4.4337 persons/s, or 266 persons/min.
The predicted value deviated signicantly from the observations,
being 20.7% lower.
The maximum ow capacity of a staircase depends on the moving speed and the density of passengers (Graat et al., 1999; Smith,
1995). As discussed above, the value for maximum upstairs walking speed of 0.67 ms1 by Fruin (1971) was used in buildingEXODUS. Larger values were reported in the literature (Lam and

Cheung, 2000; Fujiyama and Tyler, 2004; Kretz et al., 2006) as in

Table 5.

8. Upstairs walking speed

For justifying whether the upstairs walking speed used in buildingEXODUS agreed with the eld observations, the upstairs walking speed of passengers at the staircase at the station platform
during morning peak hours from 7:20 am to 8:20 am on 8 February
2007 were recorded. The results are shown in Table 6. The key
points are:
 Since the passenger density on the staircase was very high
(about 23 persons/m2), and the landing in the middle was

Please cite this article in press as: Jiang, C.S. et al., Crowding in platform staircases of a subway station in China during rush hours, Safety
Sci. (2008), doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.10.003

ARTICLE IN PRESS
5

Number of passengers evacuated N

C.S. Jiang et al. / Safety Science xxx (2008) xxxxxx

1000

N = 5.5881t

900
800
700

Observed

600

Predicted

500
400
300

N = 4.4337t - 163.58

200
100
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

220

Time t / s
Fig. 8. Maximum ow capacity of the staircase.

Table 5
Maximum upstairs walking speed reported in the literature.
Fig. 6. Overall evacuation rate.

Table 4
Comparison between predicted and observed results.
Details

Field survey
Direct result

Equivalent result
(started when the
train heading
direction A arrived)

25 s after the
arrival of the
train heading
direction A

25 s

Crowding
occurred at
the lower part
of the
staircase

15 s after the
arrival of the
train heading
direction B

25 s

Number of passengers evacuated

The rst
passenger
reached the
lower part of
the staircase

Predicted result
(started when the
train heading
direction A arrived)

3s

Source

Maximum
upstairs walking
speed (ms1)

Subject studied

Fruin (1971)
Hankin and Wright (1958)
Predtetschenski and
Milinski (1971)
General Services
Administration (1972)
van Bogaert (1986)
Ando et al. (1988)
Daly et al. (1991)
Cunningham and Cullen
(1993)
Lam and Cheung (2000)
Fujiyama and Tyler (2004)

0.67
0.80
1.23

Walkways
London underground
Unknown

1.11

Unknown

0.62
1.21
1.03
0.80

School
Japanese railway stations
Subway
Unknown

0.971.01
1.16 0.31

Hong Kong railway station

Short stair passage with only
nine steps, step height is
152 mm, tread length is
332 mm. Participants are
healthy men and women aged
from 25 to 60
The World Team Cup tennis
tournament 2004 at the
Rochusclub in Dsseldorf

27 s

Kretz et al. (2006)

1.43

30 Maximum upstair speed

-1
25 0.67 ms

20

Table 6
Observed data on upstairs walking speed.

15

Time

Time required (s)

Speed (ms1)

Personal attribute

7:20
7:20
7:31
7:31
7:42
7:42
7:45
7:47
8:00
8:00
8:00
8:04
8:07
8:10
8:13
8:17
8:19
7:35

17
19.91
21
19
19
21.84
20.12
18
19.06
22.03
19
22
26
22
25
20
26
13.75

0.64
0.54
0.52
0.57
0.57
0.50
0.54
0.60
0.57
0.49
0.57
0.49
0.42
0.49
0.43
0.54
0.42
0.79

Young man
Young woman
Young man
Young woman
Middle-aged man
Young woman
Young woman
Man aged around 50
Young woman
Old woman
Young woman
Young woman
Young man
Young man
Middle-aged fat man
Man aged over 50
Woman aged about 30
Maximum speed of a young man
under normal condition

10
5 s interval
5
0

50

100

150

200

Time / s

Fig. 7. Predicted number of passengers evacuated in different time interval with

the maximum upstair speed suggested by Fruin.

rather short, the walking speed of passengers in the middle

landing was taken as the same as the speed at the upper and
lower part of the staircase.
 As the observations were surveyed in the morning peak
hours, most of the passengers were young. The individual
walking speed was related to the passenger density in this
period.
 Since the passenger density at this time was low, the walking
speed of passengers in the middle landing might be higher than
at the upper and lower part of the staircase. Based on the data in
the EXODUS manual, the maximum fast walking speed on at

terrain mf max is 1.8 ms1, and the maximum upstairs walking

speed mus max is 0.67 ms1.

Please cite this article in press as: Jiang, C.S. et al., Crowding in platform staircases of a subway station in China during rush hours, Safety
Sci. (2008), doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.10.003

ARTICLE IN PRESS
C.S. Jiang et al. / Safety Science xxx (2008) xxxxxx

The staircase is separated into two equal portions by one landing as shown in Fig 2. In this scenario, the walking distance D on
the staircase can be calculated by the following formula:
2

D dr hr 0:5 N r dl :

In the above equation, D is the walking distance on the staircase, dr

is the depth of each step, hr is the height of each step, Nr is the total
number of steps and dl is the depth of the landing. For this scenario,
dr is 0.315 m, hr is 0.145 m, Nr is 26, dl is 1.8 m, giving:

D 0:3152 0:1452 0:5  26 1:8 m 10:82 m:

Assuming that the ratio of the maximum fast walking speed on at
terrain mf max and the maximum upstairs walking speed mus max remains unchanged, then

mf max m0f max

:
mus max m0us max

Here, uf max and mus max are respectively, the maximum fast walking
speed on at terrain and the maximum upstairs walking speed to be
derived from the surveyed data.Therefore, the minimum traveling
time tmin when a person walks on a staircase with the maximum
walking speed:

t min

D  dl

m0us max

dl

:
mf max 0
mus max mus max

From Table 6, tmin obtained from eld survey for the staircase studied here is 13.75 s, giving:

13:75

10:82  1:8

m0us max

1:8
1:8
0:67

900

Upstair speed 0.79 ms-1

N = 5.5881t

800
700

Observed

600
500

Predicted

400

N = 5.3553t - 186.19

300
200
100
0
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Time t / s
Fig. 10. Comparison of the predicted maximum ow capacity with observations.

Another simulation was carried out with maximum upstairs

walking speed of 0.79 ms1 instead of 0.67 ms1. The ending time
of evacuation at the upper part of the staircase was reduced from
199 s to 168 s. The time interval between the rst passenger reaching the east staircase and the last passenger reaching the east staircase reduced from 164 s to 137 s. The predicted average ow rate
at the east staircase became 707/(137  60) persons/min or
309 persons/min. This is 5.8% higher than the observed average value of 292 persons/min. The previous predicted value using the
walking speed of 0.67 ms1 was 259 persons/min, 11.3% lower
than the observed value. The predicted results are closer to the

m0us max

The maximum upstairs walking speed

0.71 ms1.

1000

Number of passengers evacuated N

m0us max is calculated to be

 Since the depth of the middle landing was rather small, the
walking speed in the middle landing would not reach the maximum value. The observed maximum upstairs walking speed
should be between 0.71 and 0.79 ms1, and closer to 0.79 ms1.
Based on Table 6, the maximum upstairs walking speed is
0.79 ms1. This is larger than the value by Fruin (1971), but smaller
than all the values in other studies. This might be related to the
walking behaviour of Chinese people, illustrating that overseas results cannot be applied directly in designing the ow capacity of
staircase. A lower ow capacity than the observed value would
be predicted. This is because the maximum upstairs walking speed
used in the model is smaller than the observed value.

(a) Observation

35

Number of passengers at the staircase

Number of passengers evacuated

180

Maximum upstair speed

0.79 ms-1

30
25
20
15
10
5

160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0

0
0

25

50

75

100

125

150

Time / 5 s

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Time /s
(b) Prediction

Fig. 9. Predicted number of passengers evacuated in different time intervals with

the maximum upstair speed obtained from the eld measurement.

Fig. 11. Predicted and observed passenger density at the staircase.

Please cite this article in press as: Jiang, C.S. et al., Crowding in platform staircases of a subway station in China during rush hours, Safety
Sci. (2008), doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.10.003

ARTICLE IN PRESS
7

C.S. Jiang et al. / Safety Science xxx (2008) xxxxxx

Table 7
Main parameters of two other similar staircases and the corresponding observed results.
Staircase

Main features

Observing details

Width
(m)

Step
number

Step depth
(m)

Step height
(m)

Landing depth
(m)

Observing time
interval

Maximum passengers on
one step at a moment

Maximum upstairs walking speed

for a healthy young man (ms1)

2.3

28

0.30

0.15

1.20

7:508:10 am

Frequently 4, very occasionally 5

0.82

1.7

34

0.30

0.15

1.20

7:308:30 am

Nearly always 3

0.80

actual situation in using 0.79 ms1 instead of 0.67 ms1 for the
maximum upstairs walking speed.
The number of passengers evacuated in 5 s intervals is shown in
Fig. 9. The evacuation rate reached its maximum and kept constant
from 60 to 165 s. The predicted and observed results on evacuation
rate within this period are shown together in Fig. 10.
Based on the eld survey, the maximum ow capacity of the
staircase is observed to be 5.5881 persons/s, or 335.3 persons/
min. The predicted value is 5.3553 persons/s, or 321.3 persons/
min. The value is 4.2% smaller than the observed value. Therefore,
the maximum upstairs walking speed would affect the predicted
maximum ow capacity.
After tuning the parameter concerned in the software, the predicted result agreed better with the observations. Therefore, the
passenger density has little effect on the predicted maximum ow
capacity. The predicted passenger density should be close to the
observed value.
9. Passenger loading
Effect of passenger density on the predicted maximum ow
capacity would be further investigated. Simulation with high passenger density observed in a period as in Fig. 11a was carried out to
compare with the predicted values as in Fig. 11b.
In the eld survey, there were 120130 persons on the staircase
at all times. This gives 2.22.4 persons/m2. As shown in Fig. 11a,
the persons with a bright dot on their heads were those on the
stairs at that time. At that moment, there were about 123 passengers on the stairs. The predicted number of passengers was over
120 within 48142 s. The maximum number of passengers predicted on the stairs at one time was 157, and the average number
was 144, about 2.7 persons/m2. So the predicted passenger density
is similar or slightly higher than the observed value.
Therefore, the deviation of the predicted passenger density
from the measured value in the eld studies contributes much less
to the lower predicted ow capacity than the lower maximum upstairs walking speed.
10. Validation of the tuned parameters in other stations
The predicted results agree well with the eld measurement results with two tuned parameters for the staircase studied here, i.e.,
the width of staircase utilized per person and the maximum upstairs walking speed. The default width of staircase utilized per
person in buildingEXODUS4.0 is 0.76 m, and the default maximum
upstairs walking speed is 0.67 ms1. Here, the width of staircase
utilized per person was adjusted to 0.5 m and the maximum upstairs walking speed to 0.79 ms1 based on the eld measurement
results. From the above analysis, the adjustment of these two
parameters seems to be critical to the successful predictions. However, it is unclear whether the adjusted parameters will work well
for predictions of other stations in China.
To validate the two tuned parameters in other stations, similar
staircases have to be found in the subway system. The maximum
upstairs walking speed can be measured easily in other subway

staircases. To nd suitable staircases to measure the width of staircase utilized per person, four criteria are established: (1) there is
no upward escalators alongside the staircase; (2) in the time interval to be surveyed, there is only upstairs movement on the staircase; (3) in the time interval to be surveyed, the passengers have
no heavy luggage with them; (4) the passengers are eager to leave.
The 54 stations of Beijing subway system were surveyed in 3
days in June 2008, and eight staircases were qualied for the test.
Two crowded staircases were selected from those eight staircases.
Both staircases have two identical parts with a landing in between.
The basic characteristics and eld measurement results are listed
in Table 7.
Videos were taken to record the passengers movement on the
stairs, and calculate the width of staircase utilized per person
and the maximum upstairs walking speed for detailed analysis.
As shown in Table 7, the maximum upstairs walking speeds calculated from the observed data are respectively 0.82 ms1 and
0.80 ms1, very close to the value suggested in this paper
(0.79 ms1). The widths of staircase utilized per person are, respectively, 0.575 m and 0.567 m, which is 15% and 13.4% larger than
the value suggested in this paper (0.5 m) and 24.3% and 25.4% less
than the value suggested by Fruin (0.76 m). Therefore, the width of
staircase utilized per person suggested in this paper is much closer
to the real conditions in the Beijing subway system.
From the above analysis, the new observed results have generally validated the two adjusted parameters in this paper. However,
it must be stressed that the width of staircase utilized per person is
greatly affected by the characteristics of the passengers using the
staircase. The passengers in the three subway stations observed
in this paper are young, healthy and willing to walk as fast as possible, and do not carry heavy or big luggage with them. Any
changes in these features may lead to variation of the width of
staircase utilized per person, i.e. if the passengers are old or disabled or carrying heavy luggage. The values suggested in this paper
are more realistic references for Chinese people than the original
default values measured from overseas populations. Whenever
possible, certain local measurements should be carried out to get
more precise values of the two adjusted parameters so as to obtain
good predicted results.
11. Conclusions
The passenger ow during the morning peak hours at the platform staircase of a subway station in a big city of China was studied
in this paper. The simulated total evacuation time and maximum
ow capacity of the staircase were compared with eld observations. The following conclusions can be drawn:
 The maximum upstairs walking speed of 0.67 ms1 was taken as
input to the software buildingEXODUS. This value was lower
than the observed value of about 0.79 ms1. Therefore, a smaller
value of maximum ow capacity of the staircase was predicted.
 The width of staircase utilized per person was set as 0.76 m in
buildingEXODUS. Based on this value, a maximum of seven persons would stand on the staircase of width 5.6 m as studied in

Please cite this article in press as: Jiang, C.S. et al., Crowding in platform staircases of a subway station in China during rush hours, Safety
Sci. (2008), doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.10.003

ARTICLE IN PRESS
8

C.S. Jiang et al. / Safety Science xxx (2008) xxxxxx

this paper. However, the observed maximum number of passengers standing on the staircase was 1011. The width of staircase
utilized per person should be about 0.5 m in this station.
 In comparing with results overseas, the staircase width utilized
per person and the maximum upstairs walking speed in this
paper are smaller. Physical characteristics and walking behaviour of Chinese might be different. Normally, Chinese are slimmer and shorter, a shorter stride length is resulted. Therefore,
the predicted design value will be deviated from the observed
value if overseas data are applied directly.
 The predictions agreed better with the observations after tuning
the parameters concerned. The adjusted parameters were validated in two other subway stations in Beijing. This implies that
it is feasible to assess the ow rate and evacuation capacity of
public places in China by computer simulation. However, key
important parameters have to be tuned rst by surveying local
characteristics.
Evacuation simulation is now widely used for different big projects in China. However, the parameters used in the software are
mainly derived from overseas data. It is necessary to compile a local database. Further studies are required to improve evacuation
simulations. Studies reported in this paper are just preliminary
works of the rst stage.
Acknowledgements
This paper was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 70773108) and National Science and
Technology Infrastructure Program (Project No. 2007BAK22B05).
References
Ando, K., Ota, H., Oki, T., 1988. Forecasting the ow of people (in Japanese). RRR
(Railway Research Review), 45(8), 814. In: Smith, R.A. (Ed.), 1995. Density,
velocity and ow relationships for closely packed crowds. Safety Science 18 (4),
321327.

Ashel, B., Shields, T.J., 1999. Analysis and modelling of the unannounced evacuation
of a large retail store. Fire and Materials 23, 333336.
Chow, W.K., 2004. Fire safety in train vehicle: design based on accidental re or
arson re? The Green Cross, March/April, 7pp.
Cunningham, P.P., Cullen, D.A., 1993. Pedestrian ow data collection and analysis.
Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Transport 100, 5969.
Daly, P.N., McGrath, F., Annesly, T.J., 1991. Pedestrian speed/ow relationships for
underground stations. Trafc Engineering Control 32, 7578.
Fruin, J., 1971. Pedestrian Planning and Design. Metropolitan Association of Urban
Designers and Environmental Planners, New York.
Fujiyama, T., Tyler, N., 2004. Pedestrian speeds on stairs an initial step for a
simulation model. In: Proceedings of 36th Universities Transport Studies Group
Conference, Life Science Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Galea, E.R., Gwynne, S., Lawrence, P.J., Filippidis, L., Blackshields, D., 2004. User
Guide and Technical Manual for buildingEXODUS. University of Greenwich.
General Services Administration, 1972. Building Fire Safety Criteria, Appendix D.
General Services Administration, Washington, DC. In: Pauls, J. (Ed.), Egress Time
Criteria Related to Design Rules in Codes and Standards. In: Sime, J.D. (Ed.),
Safety in the Built Environment, 1988. E & F.N. Spon, New York.
Graat, E., Midden, C., Bockholts, P., 1999. Complex evacuation, effects of motivation
level and slope of stairs on emergency egress time in a sports stadium. Safety
Science 31, 127141.
Hankin, B.D., Wright, R.A., 1958. Passenger ow in subways. Operational Research
Quarterly 9 (2), 8188.
Jiang, C.S., Ling, Y., 2004. Computer Simulation Research of Occupant Evacuation in
Beijing Subway. Beijing Municipal Institute of Labour Protection, China.
Kretz, T., Grnebohm, A., Kessel, A., Klpfel, H, Meyer-Knig, T., Schreckenberg, M.,
2006. Upstairs walking speed distributions on a long stairway. Safety Science.
doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2006.10.001.
Lam, W.H.K., Cheung, C.Y., 2000. Pedestrian speed/ow relationships for walking
facilities in Hong Kong. Journal of Transportation Engineering 126 (4), 343
349.
Miclea, P.C., Chow, W.K., Chien, S.W., Li, J., Kashef, A.H., Kang, K., 2007. International
tunnel re-safety design practices. ASHRAE Journal 2007, 5060. August.
Planning Press of China, 2003. GB 50157-2003 Code for Design of Subway.
Predtetschenski, W.M., Milinski, A.I., 1971. Personenstrme in Gebuden;
Berechnungsmethoden fr die Projektierung. Staatsverlag der Deutschen
Demokratischen Republik, Berlin (in German).
Smith, R.A., 1995. Density, velocity and ow relationships for closely packed
crowds. Safety Science 18 (4), 321327.
South China Morning Post, 2003. Taegus subway line has been beset by disaster.
Main Section, p. 10, Hong Kong, 19 February, 2003.
van Bogaert, A.F., 1986. Evacuating schools on re. Fire safety science. In: Grant, C.E.,
Pagni, P.J. (Eds.), Proceedings of the First International Symposium. Hemisphere,
Washington, DC.
Weckman, H., Lehtimaki, S., Mannikko, S., 1999. Evacuation of a theatre: exercise vs.
calculations. Fire and Materials 23 (6), 357361.

Please cite this article in press as: Jiang, C.S. et al., Crowding in platform staircases of a subway station in China during rush hours, Safety
Sci. (2008), doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.10.003