APPRECIATION OF PASSENGER’S INTUITIVE NAVIGATION IN ‘TICKETING CUM ENTRANCE LOBBY’ OF RAILWAY STATION – A CASE STUDY OF VIJAYAWADA RAILWAY JUNCTION, INDIA

Mr. Anil Kumar Chilakapati, Prof. Dr. Ramesh Srikonda, Prof. Dr. Vijayalakshmi Iyer

School of Planning and Architecture Vijayawada, India

Abstract:

Passengers intuitive navigating through Main Entry to railway stations has to experience a smooth movement, need oriented spaces, utilitarian considerations, without any barriers for expected functional aspects, safety and security . Generally passengers subject to make many decisions of navigation but it should not hider or distort the movement and direction to the purpose it is meant. Prior experience or familiarity may enable the intuitive navigation, even otherwise the architectural layout of internal functional spaces have to serve the purpose and put the passenger in a comfortable conditions otherwise it confuses or become lost. This paper attempts to understand the passengers flow , related navigation decisions in ‘ Lobby cum Ticketing areas’  of Vijayawada’s Railway stations, Andhra Pradesh with respect to the theory of closeness centrality and betweenness centrality. It has been mapped and analyzed through the Trajectory and place cell nodes and found through the significance of attractiveness, necessity and influence of barriers. Output from this assessment will have architectural design implications for both present, and future  ‘ Lobby cum Ticketing areas’  of Railway stations and other strategic that users navigation.

Key words: Closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, Place -cells, Trajectory – cells and mapping.