Analyzing the Occupied Space of Passengers with Reduced Mobility in Metro Station Platforms: An Experimental Approach Using a Tracking System

The objective of this study is to analyze the occupied space of passengers with reduced mobility when boarding or alighting a train through an experimental approach based on a virtual tracking tool system to obtain their exact position. The designed experiments considered a train and its adjacent platform, in which 21 volunteers were recruited, 3 with reduced mobility. The results indicated that passengers with reduced mobility required up to 80% more space, compared to a passenger without reduced mobility, when waiting to board the train. The passenger who occupied the largest space was the one with a pram, reaching 1.70 m2/passenger, represented as a polygon. In addition, when passengers started to walk, the space used increased due to limb movement. In the alighting process, passengers with reduced mobility used almost twice the space required for the boarding process due to the relatively larger platform space occupied as each passenger alights and walks away, whereas when boarding, each passenger has less space to share with the other people waiting for the train to arrive or for the doors to open. These results could help practitioners improve the design of the platform or implement control measures, such as adding waiting areas for those passengers with reduced mobility. Further research is needed regarding other types of stations and density situations.