Managing large flows in metro stations: Lessons learned from the New Year celebration in Copacabana

Around 2 million visitors reach the beach of Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro on the New Years Eve every year. More than 100.000 visitors travel by Metro and around 70% use the Cardeal Arcoverde Station (CAV) as their destination. This creates large pedestrian flows inside the station causing major discomfort and endangering the station users. With the steady increase of the flows in recent years a system engineering approach is applied to mitigate the circulation problems. The approach identified the station (and its components) as an open system with a feedback mechanism (crowd management measures). The system itself is connected to other systems such as the station surroundings and the trains. A system analysis, determined the individual capacities of the station components, their dynamic properties, mutual influences and dependency to the other systems. Based on these, crowd-management measures were devised and enforced in a contingency plan that improved the safety and comfort of pedestrians during the 2012-2013 event. The bottlenecks were better understood and their capacity improved causing significant less crowding in the station and allowing a rapid action of marshals when an emergency occurred. We conclude by showing the improved results that a system engineering approach is a useful approach to plan and access large crowds events.