A Study on the Measurement of Walking Speed for Evacuation Safety in Postpartum Care Centers

Abstract

Most postpartum care centers in Korea are located on the high floors of multi-use establishments and mixed use buildings; mothers in recovery after childbirth and newborns who cannot self-evacuate are the occupants of these centers. Walking speed is a necessary factor to be considered during occupant evacuation to predict evacuation time. Research is continuously being conducted on the walking speed of vulnerable persons, such as the elderly, disabled, and patients, who have relatively poor evacuation capacity. However, to date, no data exists on the walking speed of the occupants of postpartum care centers. Therefore, in this study, the walking speed was measured by categorizing the occupants of the postpartum care center into mothers alone, mothers + newborns, workers alone, and workers + newborns. The results showed an average speed of 0.95 m/s in the range of 0.73–1.12 m/s for the mothers alone and 0.68–1.03 m/s for the mothers + newborns, an average speed of 0.87 m/s in the range of 1.06–1.33 m/s for the workers alone, and an average speed of 1.18 m/s in the range of 0.95–1.29 m/s for the workers + newborns categories.