Skip to main content

Software solution for pedestrian simulation

VisWalk from PTV is a pedestrian simulation tool specifically designed to assist railway station operators, city planners, architects and event managers in planning and coordinating their projects. The software allows planners to optimise pedestrian flows in and outside buildings.
January 31, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
VisWalk from PTV is a pedestrian simulation tool specifically designed to assist railway station operators, city planners, architects and event managers in planning and coordinating their projects. The software allows planners to optimise pedestrian flows in and outside buildings.

With VisWalk the capacity of railway and underground stations can be calculated, optimal walking routes for travellers identified, queuing behaviour at ticket counters assessed, evacuation analysis performed and shop locations analysed. During the planning phase it is also possible to use VisWalk to optimise railway station design based on these criteria. At the click of a button, the software tool visualises the simulation in 3D.

Software solution for pedestrian simulation According to PTV product manager Dr Tobias Kretz, a leading expert in pedestrian simulation, VisWalk models pedestrian behaviour like no other simulation software. "One of the special features is dynamic routing. Pedestrians, just as vehicle drivers, usually try to arrive at their destination as quickly as possible. Often the quickest route is very similar to the shortest route. However, there are situations where this rule does not apply. The simplest of which is when a large group of pedestrians is doing a u-turn," Kretz says.

"Therefore, VisWalk includes both shortest and quickest path routing in the simulation."

Related Content

  • April 29, 2019
    Cost benefit: just $25 boosts pedestrian safety in Florida
    A relatively straightforward change to the way that pedestrians cross the street in a Florida city has made a significant safety improvement. And what’s more, it was cheap, finds David Crawford Installing a lead pedestrian interval (LPI) system at 25 central business district signalised intersections in the Florida city of Lakeland has cut numbers of incidents involving pedestrians by some 60% - at a cost of US$25 for 30 minutes' work, according to traffic operations manager Angelo Rao.
  • July 30, 2012
    Scorecard scores
    For situations where normal cost-benefit analysis doesn't work, TNO has developed Scorecard. How can governments ascertain the best strategy for implementing innovative solutions that are influenced by knowledge and technology as well as political context, human behaviour, impact on process and organisation? TNO, the Netherlands-headquartered applied scientific research organisation, has created a scorecard that helps assess developments like SAFESPOT, the major European project which is designing cooperati
  • January 26, 2012
    Debating road user charging systems
    Are pre-launch trials of charging systems the way to improve public acceptance? Or is the real key a more robust political attitude? Here, leading system suppliers discuss the issue. The use of distance-based Road User Charging (RUC) is now well established, at least for heavy goods vehicles on strategic roads. However demand management for all vehicles, whether a distance-based charge or some form of cordon scheme, has yet to make significant progress. This is in spite of the logic and equity of RUC being
  • September 26, 2016
    Open source application portal adds new ITS applications for download
    The Open Source Application Development Portal (OSADP) web-based portal provides access to and supports the collaboration, development, and use of open-source ITS-related applications. The OSADP has added a number of new ITS-related applications that are available free to the public, including: Dynamic intermodal routing environment for control and telematics - analysis, modelling and simulation (DIRECTView-AMS) is a visualisation application designed to view the performance measures generated during si