Variability in stadia evacuation under normal, high-motivation, and emergency egress

Abstract

Egress modelling can be used in stadia design. This modelling describes the movement of pedestrians and crowd flow considering wayfinding and decision making in evacuation and circulation. The accuracy of the modelling is highly dependent on project-specific input data that accurately represents the movement of population with associated human factors considered. Currently, there are few contemporary studies of stadia that consider real egress decision making under a range of stimuli of which practitioners may use to influence their modelling and design process. Herein, a range of evacuation urgencies and their effect on pedestrian decision making and wayfinding in stadia are considered: standard post-game egress, egress under high-motivation conditions, and emergency egress. This is done through carefully collected and recorded observation of real stadia in Canada and obtained third party video for stadiums internationally. To reinforce findings, real case studies of other notable emergencies are also considered. Decision making at all stages of evacuation are analyzed. Results indicate that, based on the cases examined, the egress behaviours differ in relation to the level of urgency, such as high motivation and emergency, and gate densities are higher for high motivation egress by a factor of 1.5. The role of staff in the evacuation process is one of the predominant factors in reducing or extending premovement regardless of the scenario. Associated contemporary behavioural theorems are used to explain differences in movement and decision-making in evacuation scenarios.