Technology Profile |
Smarter pedestrian management
on sports days
With two major sporting
venues generating
crowds of varying
sizes, Nottinghamshire County
Council needed a way to
dynamically adjust pedestrian
green time on a significant
crossing outside Trent Bridge
cricket ground. AGD’s 645
Pedestrian Detector with
volumetric capability provided
the solution.
Trent Bridge Cricket Ground
– home of Nottinghamshire
County Cricket Club and
popular for test, one-day
international and county
cricket matches – is just across
the river Trent and the city of
Nottingham. During May and
June 2019, Trent Bridge hosted
the ICC World Cup 2019 with
England, Australia, India,
Pakistan, New Zealand, the
West Indies and Bangladesh
“Traffic levels are high
enough at normal peak times,
and it is often difficult to
prioritize pedestrian crossing
times due to traffic congestion,”
explains Chris Gough, traffic
systems network manager at
Via East Midlands, a company
wholly owned by
Nottinghamshire County
Council to deliver a sustainable
highways service for the county.
“During major sporting
events like Nottingham Forest
home matches and cricket
matches at Trent Bridge, the
volume of pedestrians vastly
increases above normal levels.
all visiting Nottingham
during the competition. On the
opposite side of Radcliffe Road
is Nottingham Forest Football
Club’s city ground. These two
sporting venues have crowd
capacities of 17,500 and over
30,000 respectively, which
means there are times when a
lot of people are trying to cross
the busy A6520 Radcliffe Road
to get to and from matches.
With around 17,000 vehicles
a day on Radcliffe Road outside
the venues, it is important
to ensure the right balance
between pedestrians
and vehicles.
062 Traffic Technology International September/October 2019
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
to very low levels during the
game and then reaches a severe
peak just after the game for
around 20 to 30 minutes,”
says Gough.
For the international cricket
matches at Trent Bridge, there
also tends to be a steady build
up of pedestrians a couple of
hours before the start of play.
“Footfall reduces during
play, then peaks between
sessions as people leave to visit
local facilities such as the chip
shop opposite the ground. Then,
as you would expect, there is
a severe peak just after stumps,”
comments Gough.
This heavier demand can
cause significant delays for large
numbers of pedestrians trying
to cross during these events,”
he adds.
A build-up of pedestrians
on the pavement can also
sometimes lead to people
trying to cross between cars
and ignoring the signals. Gough
and his colleagues identified
the pedestrian demand
patterns associated with
sporting fixtures.
“When there’s a Nottingham
Forest home match, footfall
builds up from two hours
before the match, drops
/www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com