Agent-based evacuation simulation from subway train and platform

With many people using subways at the same time, subway stations must be appropriately designed to allow people to move smoothly and safely during daily operation and emergency evacuation. The present study carries out an agent-based modeling (ABM) of people from trains and platforms in a typical subway station in normal and evacuation scenarios. Developed based on the NetLogo platform, the proposed model enables defining normal and emergency scenarios with realistic considerations of some critical parameters, including number of trains; number of passengers, stairs, ticket gates, exits; passenger destination choices; and possible delaying of exiting the train and station. Comparative studies of normal and emergency situations are conducted on a prototype subway station. Parametric investigations show different impacts of some key parameters on evacuation time and delay and provide some valuable insights for understanding the potential causes of delay of evacuations and possible improvements of the subway station design in terms of emergency response. By adopting site- and event-specific parameters of the station and emergency event, future customized analyses can be conducted based on the proposed model to help design and implement more optimized and tailored emergency response plans and srategies.