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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 138 (2014) 233 240

The 9th International Conference on Traffic & Transportation Studies (ICTTS2014)

Setting the Width of Emergency Exit in Pedestrian Walking

Facilities
Shuai Wanga, Hao Yuea,*, Binya Zhanga, Juan Lib
a

MOE Key Laboratory for Urban Transportation Complex Systems Theory and Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, No.3 Shangyuancun,
Haidian District, Beijing 100044, P.R. China
b
Tianjin Bohai Urban Planning & Design Institute, No.2-1-02, Sunny Golden Land Plaza, North Central Road, Tanggu District, Tianjin 300451,
P.R. China

Abstract
To improve the safety of pedestrian evacuation and the utilization efficiency of emergency exits in pedestrian walking facilities,
the method of computing the width of emergency exits was presented in this paper. These factors of influencing the setup of exit
width were analyzed from the process of pedestrian evacuation, the capacity of pedestrian passing exit and the strategy of
pedestrian selecting exit. It is shown that the setup of exit width is dependent on the capacity of passing exit, the strategy of exit
selection and the total sum, initial site, and aggregation degree of pedestrians in walking facilities. It is also found that the total
capacity of passing exits will be low with the number of exits rising under the condition with a fixed total width of exits. The
procedure of setting exit was presented to compute the number, site and width of every exit in pedestrian facilities through an
example.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Beijing Jiaotong University (BJU), Systems Engineering Society of China (SESC).
Peer-review under responsibility of Beijing Jiaotong University(BJU), Systems Engineering Society of China (SESC).
Keywords: Public safety; Walking facilities; Exit width; Pedestrian evacuation; Passing capacity

1. Introduction
With the rapid growth of city's population and size, large-scale activities of pedestrian gathering and travelling
become more and more frequent. In order to meet the demand of residents travel and group activities, the building
scale and capacity of pedestrian walking facilities such as transport hub, stadiums, theaters, shopping malls,

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-(0)10-5168-8334; Fax: +86-(0)10-5168-8334.
E-mail address: yuehao@bjtu.edu.cn.

1877-0428 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

Peer-review under responsibility of Beijing Jiaotong University(BJU), Systems Engineering Society of China (SESC).
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.200

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amusement centers are increased. Pedestrian walking facilities belong to significant infrastructure in life and work of
urban residents. Because of large building scale, complex spatial layout, and high pedestrian density, its difficult to
organize emergency evacuation in pedestrian walking facilities. The setup of emergency exit in pedestrian walking
facilities has a significant impact on the pedestrian congestion, evacuation time and movement distance in normal or
emergency evacuation process. A reasonable setup of emergency exit, especially the width of emergency exit, will
contribute to provide the best pedestrian evacuation route, to reduce evacuation time and to lessen pedestrian
congestion, which improves the utilization efficiency of emergency exit and the evacuation safety. An unreasonable
setup will likely cause a lower utilization of evacuation space or facility, a longer evacuation time or distance, an
extreme pedestrian congestion and an induced stampede-crush. In order to shorten evacuation time, lessen
pedestrian jam and provide a safe, quick and convenient pedestrian evacuation, it is necessary to reasonably
compute exit width in pedestrian walking facilities apart from to eliminate potential safety hazard. Therefore, the
theories and methods of setting the width of emergency exit in pedestrian walking facilities are hot issues in the field
of public safety.
In the field of setting emergency exit in pedestrian walking facilities, related studies include the choice of
pedestrian evacuation path or emergency exit (Chen and Feng, 2009; Lo et al., 2006; Yue et al., 2011; Margrethe et
al., 2010). Yue et al. (2012) has recently developed the influence of pedestrian initial position on the evacuation
process. The design and evaluation of evacuation in pedestrian facilities was improved (Fang et al., 2011; Tavares
and Galea, 2009; Zhang and Tan, 2009; Zhang, 2009). Wu et al. (2010) presented evacuation simulations in
pedestrian facilities, Gwynne a et al. (2009) and Zhao et al. (2008) presented the capacity of pedestrian passing
through exit, etc. These methods such as empirical analysis, evacuation experiment and computer simulation are
adopted to analyze the choice of pedestrian evacuation route and the optimal number of evacuation pedestrian in
established space layout (Chen and Feng, 2009). Lo et al., (2006) and Yue et al., (2011) presented the behaviour of
pedestrian choice for emergency exit. The choice of evacuation route in emergency conditions was improved by
Margrethe et al. (2010). Yue et al. (2012) developed the influence of pedestrian initial position on evacuation. Fang
et al. (2011) improved the using effectiveness of space and time in pedestrian evacuation. The evacuation design for
large pedestrian walking facilities has been presented (Tavares and Galea, 2009; Zhang and Tan, 2009; Zhang,
2009). Wu et al. (2010) presented the simulation of pedestrian evacuation. Gwynne a et al (2009) and Zhao et al
(2008) improved the effect of width and design on the capacity of passing through exit. Moreover, Code for design
of building fire protection GBJ 16-87 in China also formulated the basic safety requirements for setting emergency
exit. However, these studies focus on the simulation and evaluation for the evacuation in established pedestrian
facilities. There is little study on the method of setting emergency exit, especially the width of emergency exit in
pedestrian walking facilities.
The following parts of this paper are organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the influencing factors on
computing the width of emergency exit, including the process of pedestrian evacuation, the capacity of passing
emergency exit and the strategy of pedestrian selecting exit. Section 3 presents the method of computing the width
of emergency exit in pedestrian walking facilities according to evacuation characteristics such as the total number
and initial position of pedestrian and the capacity of passing exit, in which the principles of setting emergency exit
are introduced based on evacuation time and movement distance. Section 4 presents the procedure of setting exit
through an example. Finally, Section 5 is conclusion.
2. The Influencing Factors on Setting Emergency Exit
2.1. The Process of Pedestrian Evacuation
Pedestrians often gathered in a local area in pedestrian walking facilities, because of the aim of their own
activities or the isolation of internal obstacles like walls and chairs. Emergency exit is the bottlenecks of pedestrian
evacuation in walking facilities. So pedestrians with high density will easily lead to congestion and increase
evacuation time. During the process of evacuation, gathering pedestrians should first disperse into the normal
evacuation state from the local aggregation state. Then they move along the passageway or directly towards exit.
Finally form a crowded queue in front of exit and leave from walking facilities in turn by exit. In order to describe
the relationship between evacuation process and evacuation time, the evacuation process in pedestrian walking

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facilities can be divided into three stages: disperse stage, way-finding stage and passing-exit stage. In disperse stage,
pedestrian disperse into the normal evacuation state from the local aggregation state. In way-finding stage,
pedestrians find evacuation path and moving to the exit. In passing-exit stage, all congested pedestrians pass through
exit. Disperse time T1, way-finding time T2 and exit-passing time T3 are respectively named corresponding to three
evacuation stages. The process of pedestrian evacuation in pedestrian walking facilities can be shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Illustration of the process of pedestrian evacuation in walking facilities

The total evacuation time in pedestrian walking facilities is named as T. It is the time that the last pedestrian
leaves from walking facility. T is determined by T1, T2 and T3.
T

T1  T2  T3

(1)

In order to calculate pedestrian evacuation time, it is assumed that there is only one exit in pedestrian facilities,
that evacuation sign in evacuation facilities is clear to pedestrian, that normal congestion occur before emergency
exit without panic, and that pedestrian initial aggregation area is circular. T1, T2 and T3 can be calculated by Eq. (2),
Eq. (3) and Eq. (4).
T 1 ( R2  R1 ) V

T2

( A S  1.5N S ) V

LV

(2)
(3)

(4)
T3 N C
Where, R1 is the radius of gathering crowd and R2 is the radius of dispersed pedestrian. V is normal movement
speed of pedestrians. A is the area of gathered crowd. L is the distance from the crowd edges to exit. The size of
movement area of single pedestrian is 1.5 m2 in normal evacuation process. Therefore the total size of dispersed area
for N pedestrians is 1.5N in Eq. (2). 1.34m/s, a mean value, is generally adopted as the pedestrian movement speed
(Yue, 2008). C is the total pass capacity of exit in walking facilities. Eq. (2), (3) and (4) only simply describe the
evacuation time in ideal conditions. And there need a specific analysis in the actual situation.
2.2. The Capacity of Pedestrian Passing Exit
The capacity of pedestrian passing exit is defined as the largest number of evacuation pedestrian who pass
emergency exit in a unit time. The saturation flow rate of pedestrian passing exit is served as the capacity of passing
exit, in which the flow rate is under the saturation condition with a normal congestion before exit and no panics. The
capacity is computed through a pedestrian experiment, in which a saturation flow is formed and kept and a lower or
higher density is avoided when pedestrians pass through exit. The relationship between the capacity of passing exit

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and the width of exits based on pedestrian experiments is shown in Table 1, and the statistics curve of the capacity
passing exit is shown in Fig. 2.
Table 1. The capacity of pedestrian passing exits with different widths
width(m)

0.7

0.9

1.1

1.3

1.5

1.7

1.9

Capacity(person/s)

1.407

1.795

2.467

2.911

3.861

4.950

5.583

Fig. 2. The curve of the capacity of pedestrian passing against the width of exit

It is shown from Fig.2 that the capacity will increase with the exit width rise under the condition with single exit.
It is also found that the total capacity of passing exit will decrease with the number of exit rise under the condition
with multi-exit and a certain total width. In realistic pedestrian walking facilities, the different number of exits will
lead to the different width of each exit when the total width of all exits is a certain value. Therefore, both the width
and number of exits should be considered in the process of setting exit in pedestrian walking facilities.
2.3. The Strategy of Pedestrian Selecting Exit
When there are more than one exit in pedestrian walking facilities, pedestrians will adopt different strategies of
exit selection to evacuate from room based on different evacuation environments such as panics or normal
evacuation. In different evacuation, the evacuation time and movement distance are two key factors to influence
pedestrians exit choice. Therefore, the strategies of exit selection are classified into two basic types: distance-based
strategy and time-based strategy. Pedestrians pursue the shortest evacuation movement distance in evacuation
process of with distance-based strategy; however, the short evacuation time is pursued in time-based strategy
In distance-based strategy, the distance between pedestrian site and room exit is a major factor of affecting exit
choice. Pedestrians, who are unfamiliar with evacuation circumstances with panics, will select the nearest exit from
them as their final exit, which can be observed in panics and irrational evacuation environment.
In time-based strategy, the evacuation aim is to leave room within the shortest possible time. Pedestrians, who are
familiar with evacuation circumstances without panics, will intend to select a slight or no jam exit as their final exit,
which can be observed in normal and rational evacuation environment.
These distance-based and time-based evacuations are two basic exit selection strategies, which respectively
describe the concerns of pedestrian selection from distance and time in evacuation. Moreover, the strategy of exit
selection decides the number or proportion of pedestrian selecting different exit in evacuation, which leads to
different T2 and T3 for every exit, and which results in different evacuation time and evacuation distance. Therefore,
the strategy of exit selection should be considered in the process of setting more than one exit in walking facilities.
In this paper, the distance-based strategy is adopted to determine the site of emergency exit in pedestrian walking
facilities, i.e. pedestrian select the nearest exit from them as their final exit to evacuate.

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3. The Method of Setting the Width of Emergency Exit

3.1. The Principles of Setting Emergency Exit
In the setup of emergency exit, the longest evacuation time Tmax and the longest evacuation distance Lmax are two
basic design criterions. Two basic principles must be followed, that evacuation time of exits design is smaller than
Tmax and movement distance of exits design is shorter than Lmax.
In the pedestrian walking facilities, emergency exit should be reasonably set to make simple evacuation route,
and to effectively reduce the pedestrian jam, which meets the time principle. Simultaneously, emergency exit should
be set around the area of high density to be found quickly by most pedestrian and to reduce the distance between
pedestrian and exit in fire, earthquake and other disasters, which meets the distance principle.
These factors such as pedestrian number, exit number, exit width, pedestrian initial position, and pedestrian
aggregation degree and so on will have effect on evacuation time and evacuation distance, which affect the setup of
emergency exit in pedestrian walking facilities.
3.2. The Width of Emergency Exit
The method of computing exit width in pedestrian walking facilities is shown as follows:
Step 1Confirm the longest evacuation time Tmax and the longest evacuation distance Lmax of pedestrian walking
facilities.
Step 2Form the position of emergency exit.
The position of exit is formed based on the distance principle of design. Movement distance is shorter than Lmax
through analyzing the pedestrian initial position and surrounding environment of walking facilities.
Step 3Calculate the disperse time T1 and way-finding time T2 of every exit.
The number or proportion of pedestrian selecting different exit is calculated, based on which the T1i and T2i of
exit i are computed.
Step 4Calculate the total width W of all exits.
w n

(5)

N {[Tmax  max (T1i  T2i )] Cw }

(6)

W
n

Where, n is the number of exit with minimum width. w is the minimum width for exit. W is the total width of all
exits. Cw is the capacity of passing exit when its width is w. T1i and T2i respectively is the disperse time and wayfinding time of exit i.
Step 5Confirm the width of every exit.
The width l i of exit i is computed based on the total width W and D i , which is the proportion of pedestrian
selecting exit i.
li

WD i

(7)

Step 6Calculate evacuation time T

The exit-passing time T3i of exit i is computed based on the curve of the capacity of passing exit and l i .
T

max (T i )
i

max (T1i  T2i  T3i )

(8)

Step 7Judge whether the evacuation time T meet the principle of TdTmax or not.
If TdTmax, end the process. Or the position or width of emergency exit is corrected. In the correction of position or
width of exit, the exit with T i ! Tmax is found. If T2i is longer than one of other exit, exit location is changed to
reduce the distance between pedestrians and exit, and to shorten the way-finding time T2i and then go to Step 2. If
,
T3i is longer than one of other exit, exit width is widened to increase the capacity of passing exit and reduce the exit-

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passing time T3i . Meanwhile, the width of the exit with T j  Tmax and a much short T3 j is narrowed to reduce the
waste for exit width.
The flow diagram of setting emergency exit width in pedestrian walking facilities is shown in Fig. 3.
Confirm Tmax and Lmax
Way-finding time

Form the position of exits

is much long

Calculate the T1 and T2 of every exit

Confirm the total width of all exits
Confirm the width of every exit

Exit-passing time is
much long or short

Calculate evacuation time T

Judge whether TTmax

or not

1R

Judge
way-finding time T2
and exit-passing time
T3

<HV
(QG

Fig. 3. Flow chart of setting emergency exit width in pedestrian walking facilities

4. A setup example
There are 96 seats in a film screening room with an area of 220 m2. Tmax is 20s and Lmax is 20m. Assume that all
exits in room are visible for pedestrian. The steps of exit setup are as follows:
(1) Confirm the longest evacuation time Tmax and the longest evacuation distance Lmax: Tmax is 20s and Lmax is
20m.
(2) Initially set the exits respectively in the east and west sides, considered with the Lmax.
(3) Pedestrians can directly evacuate from room after standing up, because the width of seat row space is 1.2m.
Therefore, T1 is 5s, which is constituted by standing up time and preparing for leave time. Because of exists
symmetrical layout, we can calculate T2 as follow: T2=L/V=2/1.34=1.49s.
(4) Calculate the total width W of all exits. Code for design of building fire protection GBJ 16-87 provides that
auditorium evacuation exit in crowded public places must with the width no less than 1.4m. According to the curve
of the capacity of pedestrian passing exit, the capacity of pedestrian passing is 3.45 person/s for the exit with 1.4m
width. So we can calculate n, W and l as follows: n=96/[(20-5-1.49)3.45]=2.0597; W=1.42.0597=2.8835m;
l1=l2=1.44m. The layout of exits in the case is shown in Fig. 4.
(5) Because of the symmetric distribution of seats and exits, each exit shares the same responsibility as 48
persons. T3=48/3.607=13.30s
(6) Calculate evacuation time T. T=T1+T2+T3=5+1.49+13.30=19.79s. The evacuation time T meet the principle of
TdTmax. So this setup neednt to be modified.
(7) End the setting for exit.
Meanwhile, considering the actual situation, only one exit can be set in the room. An alternative layout of exits
can be formed according to the corresponding indicators and setting method, which is shown in Fig. 5. As can be
observed, alternative layout meets the principle of Tmax and Lmax, in which T2=3/1.34=2.24s; n=96/[(20-52.24)3.45]=2.1807; W=1.42.1807=3.05m; T3=96/13.34=7.2s; T=T1+T2+T3=5+2.24+7.2=14.44s.

Shuai Wang et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 138 (2014) 233 240

239

6&5((1

(;,7$ P

L P

P (;,7%

Lmax P

Fig. 4. The layout of exits in computation example

6&5((1

Lmax P

L P
P

Fig. 5. An alternative layout of exits in computation example

5. Conclusions
In the paper, the setup method of the width of emergency exit in pedestrian walking facilities is presented. The
evacuation process is divided into three stages: disperse stage, way-finding stage and exit-passing stage. It is found
that pedestrian initial position and aggregation degree are two key factors to influence evacuation time. The curve of
the capacity of passing exit against the width of exit is drawn through a pedestrian experiment. It is found that the
total capacity of passing exit will decrease with the exit number rise under the condition with a fixed total width of
exits. The distance-based and time-based strategies of pedestrian selecting exit are introduced in walking facilities
with multi-exit. It is found the strategies of exit selection have effect on the evacuation time. The general steps of
setting emergency exit are presented based on the capacity of passing exit, the strategy of exit selection and the sum,
initial site and aggregation of pedestrian, through which the number, site and width of exits are determined in
pedestrian walking facilities.

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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11172035, 51338008), the
National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2012CB725400), and the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (2013JBM046), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (201003036), and the Talent
Foundation of BJTU (2012RC026). The authors deeply appreciate these supports.
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