Salomon Temple,Brazil

In 2015, SALT was engaged to undertake detailed pedestrian modelling for the Salomon Temple in São Paulo, Brazil.

The Salomon Temple consists of the temple itself as well as a wider complex of classrooms, TV and radio studios, an auditorium and lodging for pastors.

During peak weekday operations approximately 10,000 people exit the temple over a 40 minute period. On weekends when multiple services are held, up to 10,000 people exit and enter the temple simultaneously.

A large proportion of these people are required to cross the major arterial road Avenida Celso Garcia (Celso Garcia Avenue) in order to access the nearby bus stops. This blocked traffic, decreased safety and created significant delays to the loading and unloading of buses.

To address these issues, SALT used best-in-class STEPS software to simulate pedestrian dynamics under both normal and peak conditions. In contrast to older generations of software that treat the problem as one of continuum flow, we were able to realistically predict the movement of ‘virtual people’ through three-dimensional space, and by importing bus timetables, we further improved the accuracy of the pedestrian model. This ultimately illuminated subtle but important pedestrian movement details, providing much greater insight to the designer.

Our recommendations helped improve traffic and bus operations by improving the design of bus waiting areas, reducing bus loading and unloading time and modifying bus timetables. We also introduced pedestrian calming measures to direct pedestrians to designated crossing points.