PedNStream: Scalable Network Flow Simulation for Pedestrian Traffic Management

Abstract

Evaluating operational crowd management at network scale requires simulations that can be run repeatedly while adapting interventions to changing conditions. Microscopic models can represent detailed individual movement, but their computational cost may limit their use in such repeated, network-scale evaluations. This paper presents PedNStream (Pedestrian Network Flow Simulation), an open-source, Python-native simulator for macroscopic pedestrian network simulation based on the Link Transmission Model (LTM). PedNStream extends LTM-based pedestrian models with stochastic link dynamics that represent local variation in pedestrian flow. It uses a utility-based route-choice model to capture how pedestrians adjust their route choices in response to congestion and control interventions as conditions change over time. The modular framework provides controller interfaces for gating, flow separation, and route guidance. We evaluate PedNStream in a staged manner. Synthetic scenarios verify key crowd-dynamics mechanisms, including queue formation, spillback, congestion dissipation, and adaptive rerouting. Real-network experiments assess large-scale behavior against observed pedestrian counts. A closed-loop case study demonstrates controller integration, and a runtime analysis quantifies scalability. These results position PedNStream as an efficient and practical testbed for large-scale pedestrian network simulation and crowd management research.