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The impact of people with mobility limitations on exit choice

Smedberg, Erik LU ; De Cet, Giulia LU ; Wahlqvist, Jonathan LU ; Carlsson, Gunilla LU ; Gefenaite, Giedre LU orcid ; Slaug, Björn LU orcid ; Schmidt, Steven LU orcid and Ronchi, Enrico LU orcid (2023) In Fire Safety Journal 140.
Abstract

Demographic trends and advances in accessibility have led to more heterogeneous populations in public buildings. While providing accessible evacuation, it may be necessary to direct evacuees to different evacuation paths depending on functional capacity. The presence of people with mobility limitations (e.g., wheelchair users) may affect the evacuation of others, possibly influencing the decision making of neighbouring evacuees. This study investigates how exit choice of people is influenced by the functional capacity of other evacuees and the design of the exit. Virtual Reality was used to design a discrete choice experiment in which participants were exposed to multiple choice situations and a mixed logit model was fitted to the data.... (More)

Demographic trends and advances in accessibility have led to more heterogeneous populations in public buildings. While providing accessible evacuation, it may be necessary to direct evacuees to different evacuation paths depending on functional capacity. The presence of people with mobility limitations (e.g., wheelchair users) may affect the evacuation of others, possibly influencing the decision making of neighbouring evacuees. This study investigates how exit choice of people is influenced by the functional capacity of other evacuees and the design of the exit. Virtual Reality was used to design a discrete choice experiment in which participants were exposed to multiple choice situations and a mixed logit model was fitted to the data. Results from 40 participants indicate that exit choice was positively influenced by other people choosing the exit, and a larger effect was found when the other person was a wheelchair user. The design of the exit also influenced the exit choice of the participants. Large inter-person differences existed. Strategies reported by the participants in the subsequent questionnaire included altruistic behaviour. These results can inform fire safety engineers when outlining evacuation strategies and evacuation model users in their assumptions concerning exit choice in building evacuation.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Accessibility, Disabilities, Discrete choice, Evacuation, Exit choice, Human behaviour in fire, Mobility limitations, Virtual reality
in
Fire Safety Journal
volume
140
article number
103900
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85167981223
ISSN
0379-7112
DOI
10.1016/j.firesaf.2023.103900
project
Building egressibility in an aging society
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1fa52eef-9f62-4724-8bd4-f860a3b9f011
date added to LUP
2023-10-24 11:34:32
date last changed
2024-02-06 12:49:26
@article{1fa52eef-9f62-4724-8bd4-f860a3b9f011,
  abstract     = {{<p>Demographic trends and advances in accessibility have led to more heterogeneous populations in public buildings. While providing accessible evacuation, it may be necessary to direct evacuees to different evacuation paths depending on functional capacity. The presence of people with mobility limitations (e.g., wheelchair users) may affect the evacuation of others, possibly influencing the decision making of neighbouring evacuees. This study investigates how exit choice of people is influenced by the functional capacity of other evacuees and the design of the exit. Virtual Reality was used to design a discrete choice experiment in which participants were exposed to multiple choice situations and a mixed logit model was fitted to the data. Results from 40 participants indicate that exit choice was positively influenced by other people choosing the exit, and a larger effect was found when the other person was a wheelchair user. The design of the exit also influenced the exit choice of the participants. Large inter-person differences existed. Strategies reported by the participants in the subsequent questionnaire included altruistic behaviour. These results can inform fire safety engineers when outlining evacuation strategies and evacuation model users in their assumptions concerning exit choice in building evacuation.</p>}},
  author       = {{Smedberg, Erik and De Cet, Giulia and Wahlqvist, Jonathan and Carlsson, Gunilla and Gefenaite, Giedre and Slaug, Björn and Schmidt, Steven and Ronchi, Enrico}},
  issn         = {{0379-7112}},
  keywords     = {{Accessibility; Disabilities; Discrete choice; Evacuation; Exit choice; Human behaviour in fire; Mobility limitations; Virtual reality}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Fire Safety Journal}},
  title        = {{The impact of people with mobility limitations on exit choice}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2023.103900}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.firesaf.2023.103900}},
  volume       = {{140}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}