A Study on the Agent-Simulation of Waiting Behaviours Inside a Transfer Station Space

Recently, the number of transfer railway stations has increased in many regions especially in Asia, resulting in transfer open spaces being required inside the transfer stations. Particularly such open spaces provide not only lanes for transit commuters but also places to wait for friends, appointments and the like. In this study, focusing on pedestrian waiting behaviors inside such open spaces, we observed behaviors and proposed an agent model. Through simulations using this model, we then examined the spatial layout inside an open space in Nagoya station, Japan, a typical large transfer station. As a result, the findings from our study are:(1) we verified a newly devised agent simulation model showing the interaction between commuting agents (henceforth C-agent) agents and waiting agents (henceforth W-agent), by introducing the Way Point network and Floor Potential approaches, (2) we conducted simulation in different case settings of the eye-stop monument layout, and assessed the obstacle level of the commuters by the effect of the monument location.