Abstract
Door width is one of the important factors to concern in layout or facilities design because it affects directly to traffic speed and overall traffic time simultaneously. Nowadays, common assessment method is computer simulation which is still not realistic due to the unchanged speed of model while walking through a door. This research aims to study an effect of door width to individual walking speed. Sixty subjects participated in the experiment and performed task by walking through the door that is set the width as 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 centimetres. The optical motion capture system was used to determine walking speed. The results showed that Fitts’ law was applied to the participants with high weight. Door width below 70 centimetres significantly affected to changing speed at 0-0.5 m. before the door. Additionally, human size also affected changing speed. The factors include shoulder breadth, weight and interaction between shoulder breadth and weight were found to be significant. These factors explained 54.2% of changing speed.
Highlights
In places and buildings usability, passageway width is one of the important factors to be considered because it affects to overall traffic time
The results are presented as walking speed versus distance before the door
It is found that walking speed of all participants is not constant along the distance
Summary
In places and buildings usability, passageway width is one of the important factors to be considered because it affects to overall traffic time. At the rush hours in some public places such as subway stations or even airports, amount of passengers decrease extremely but the traffic area is restrict. This may cause retardation in pedestrian traffic. Passageway width becomes a critical factor in case of emergency because traffic time represents the evacuation time. If the traffic area especially the exit is not wide enough, it cannot support evacuation of all people lead to injuries and losses. If the impropriety between amount of people and traffic area is indicated, this will lead to further solutions
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