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Turning Angle Effect on Emergency Egress: Experimental Evidence and Pedestrian Crowd Simulation

Interactions between humans and physical features of the escape area can considerably impede collective movement of panicked crowds. The turning angle is one of the physical features that must be designed carefully as angled or circuitous egress routes such as corridors are unavoidable features of mass gathering places. Previous studies on crowd disasters have highlighted the importance of considering turning movements, particularly under panic situations. However, few qualitative and quantitative studies have addressed this phenomenon. One reason for the limited study might be the lack of empirical data to validate the predictions from mathematical models. In this work, empirical data collected from panicking ants and data from a crowd dynamic simulation model are used to describe how right-angled egress paths work ineffectively compared with straight egress paths during the collective panic egress. Empirical data with panicking ants and simulation results show that right-angled egress paths are more than 20% ineffective compared with straight paths of the same dimensions. That is, right-angled egress paths decrease the flow rate and increase the escape times significantly compared with those of straight egress paths. Results suggest that it is possible to study evacuation strategies and design solutions that can prevent crowd disasters by using empirical data collected from biological entities.