  The worldwide population is aging and countries are facing ongoing challenges
in meeting the transportation demand of the elderly. In this study, we
investigate the movement characteristics of elders in the straight corridor and
compare them with that of young adults. The free speeds of the elderly (about
1.28m/s) are obviously slower than that of the young people (about 1.4m/s) in
the laboratory experiments. It was found that the fundamental diagram of the
elderly shows the similar trend compared with that of young pedestrians.
However, at the same densities the speeds of the elderly are always lower than
that of the young pedestrians in the observed density range (< 3.0 m2). When
the mean velocity calculated from pedestrian movement at low densities is
considered, the two normalized fundamental diagrams agree quite well. The
reasons for the differences are explored by analyzing the border distance, the
nearest neighbors as well as the spatial distribution areas of the pedestrians.
Our findings can be useful for the improvement of the pedestrian modelling and
the design of pedestrian facilities that are much friendlier to the elderly.

Physics and Society