Waiting time in emergency evacuation of crowded public transport terminals

Abstract

Emergency evacuation in crowded public transport terminals in the Far East is a matter of great concern. Passengers are jammed at the exits during peak hours, even under normal evacuation. The waiting time required would be very long and that would extend the evacuation process. The waiting time under crowded condition should be minimized by providing more exits; or implementing proper fire safety management. In this paper, waiting time during emergency evacuation in crowded halls was studied. A waiting time index (WTI) was proposed to quantify jamming at the exits. An airport terminal with fire safety provided by performance-based design was taken as an example to illustrate the concept. Two evacuation models, buildingEXODUS and SIMULEX, were applied to study emergency evacuation in the terminal under crowded conditions. Different occupancy levels in local codes were considered under fire and normal conditions in the departure hall.