Social Distance Modeling on the Copenhagen, Denmark, Metro
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 148, Issue 2
Abstract
Public transport is a critical service in Copenhagen, Denmark, because many residents do not own a car, and in any event, car travel is not practical in the city center due to narrow roads and lack of parking. In response to COVID-19, Danish public health authorities have established a minimum 1-m social distancing policy in public spaces. This study simulates passenger pedestrian flow in three representative stations of the Copenhagen metro to determine if these goals can be attained and if any physical changes should be made. The study is conducted with a microsimulation in commercially available software of the passenger flow in three representative stations, with small, medium, and large traffic flows. The simulation is agent-based, and the individual objective function is minimum cost according to walking distance, comfort, and frustration. The results show that for the majority of stations, the physical infrastructure and the expected traffic flow are compatible with the social distancing goals. However, for a few of the highest demand stations, particularly those that serve as intermodal hubs, there are great difficulties in achieving the desired social distancing measures. In particular, the intermodal hub station of Nørreport does not possess corridors and escalators that are distributed correctly according to the pedestrian flow. This station is underground, and it is unfortunately not easy to change this infrastructure.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request:
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passenger count statistics, and
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drawings of the stations.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Metroselskabet I/S for their support and cooperation in performing this research.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 148 • Issue 2 • February 2022
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 7, 2021
Accepted: Oct 7, 2021
Published online: Nov 22, 2021
Published in print: Feb 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Apr 22, 2022
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