The impact of crowd composition on egress performance

Abstract

The data that is currently used when designing egress systems for stadia and other high-occupancy buildings was collected decades ago and might not be applicable in today's society. A systematic analysis of crowd movement was performed to investigate egress flows at a large stadium in the UK following four different event types (i.e., a football game, a rugby game, a concert featuring a male singer/songwriter and a concert featuring a female pop artist). Video footage captured the egressing crowds and the relationships between velocities, flows and densities across the different events were established. The results indicate that the crowd composition, along with external factors (e.g., weather), have a measurable impact on the velocities, flows and densities observed. These differences are likely linked to the body area occupied by different crowds and the social interaction between members of the crowd. The observed flowrates were all below 60 people/m*min, which is significantly lower than the maximum value (82 people/m*min) recommended in the 2018 Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (the sixth edition of the “Green Guide”). The observed behaviour and flowrates suggest the need to carefully consider the impact of crowd composition when planning stadium egress including emergency evacuation.