Together Apart: the Influence of Increased Crowd Heterogeneity on Crowd Dynamics at Bottlenecks

Paul Geoerg; Ann Katrin Boomers; Maxine Berthiaume; Maik Boltes; Max Kinateder

doi:10.17815/CD.2024.156

Authors

Paul Geoerg Vereinigung zur Förderung des Deutschen Brandschutzes e.V., Münster, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7196-1245
Ann Katrin Boomers Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3738-2869
Maxine Berthiaume University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Maik Boltes Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1669-3900
Max Kinateder National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, Canada https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1669-3900

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17815/CD.2024.156

Keywords:

Pedestrian Dynamics, Heterogeneous Crowd, Wheelchair User, Luggage, Bottleneck, Disability, Evacuation, Performance-based Design, Egressibility

Abstract

Individual differences in mobility (e.g., due to wheelchair use) are often ignored in the prediction of crowd movement. Consequently, engineering tools cannot fully describe the impact of vulnerable populations on egress performance. To contribute to closing this gap, we performed laboratory experiments with 25 pedestrians with varying mobility profiles. The control condition comprised only participants without any additional equipment; in the luggage condition and the wheelchair condition, two participants at the center of the group either carried suitcases or used a wheelchair. We found that individuals using wheelchairs and to a lesser degree those carrying luggage needed longer to pass through the bottleneck, which also affected those walking behind them. This led to slower times to fully clear the bottleneck in the wheelchair and luggage condition compared to the control group. The results challenge the status quo in existing approaches to calculating egress performance and other key performance metrics in crowd dynamics.

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