Empirical Fundamental Diagrams for Bidirectional Pedestrian Streams in a Corridor

In this study, series of experiments under laboratory conditions were carried out to study uni- and bidirectional pedestrian streams in a straight corridor. The software PeTrack is used to extract pedestrian trajectories from video recordings automatically. From these trajectories the characteristics of bidirectional flow are analyzed using the Voronoi method. The fundamental diagram for various types of bidirectional streams agree well and no large differences are found in observed density range ρ < 2.5 m−2. By comparing the diagram between uni- and bidirectional stream, it is shown that the density-flow relationships agree well for the free flow state. However, the maximum specific flow in unidirectional streams is significantly larger than that in bidirectional streams.