Optimization of Bottleneck Facilities in Subway Stations Based on WiFi Data

With the rapid development of subway network, crowding has become a common problem for both the passengers and the management departments. To study this problem, data like MAC address and their arrival time were obtained through WiFi probes in three subway stations in Beijing in 2018. The credibility of WiFi data was verified by the sample consistency, the measurement accuracy and WiFi usage ratio. The passing time in bottleneck areas was considered to be a key indicator for facility evaluation in Anylogic-based simulation. The security inspection and the fare gate were shown as the bottleneck areas. The schemes were put forward to optimize the layout. The results show that if the passengers with small luggage were guided to use portable detectors, the total average passing time will drop from 48.4 to 44.8 s. In a subway station, 8–10 fare gates are basically enough to save the passing time for the crowds.