Abstract:
The well-known studies on walking speeds and flows only take into account data for adult populations. However, in Brazil, largely due to the poor dissemination of the practice of evacuation plants, there are no data on walking data elementary school students (6 to 14 year-old) collected in a succession of three fire drills carried out in a three-floors school building that serves from kindergarten classes (five-year-olds) up to high school students (age between 15 and 17), located in the metropolitan Region of São Paulo, Brazil. In order to compare obtained values in a broad sense, an analysis of velocity data children (walking and running speeds) in other research fields such as medical and sports sciences was also made. In general results show a large variability in speed, even by the same group of students (same age) along different sections, due to traffic jams and other factors inherent to a fire drill. The main conclusion is that, in general, the obtained data are not very different from other few available ones, for the considered range of age. Even the apparent differences are not relevant due to the influence of others environmental factors in evacuation movements of children.
Reference:
ONO, Rosária; VALETIN, Marcos V.; VITTORINO, Fúlvio. Walking speed data of fire drills at an elementary school. In: INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM HUMAN BEHAVIOUR IN FIRE SYMPOSIUM, 5., 2012, Cambridge. Proceedings… 11p
The well-known studies on walking speeds and flows only take into account data for adult populations. However, in Brazil, largely due to the poor dissemination of the practice of evacuation plants, there are no data on walking data elementary school students (6 to 14 year-old) collected in a succession of three fire drills carried out in a three-floors school building that serves from kindergarten classes (five-year-olds) up to high school students (age between 15 and 17), located in the metropolitan Region of São Paulo, Brazil. In order to compare obtained values in a broad sense, an analysis of velocity data children (walking and running speeds) in other research fields such as medical and sports sciences was also made. In general results show a large variability in speed, even by the same group of students (same age) along different sections, due to traffic jams and other factors inherent to a fire drill. The main conclusion is that, in general, the obtained data are not very different from other few available ones, for the considered range of age. Even the apparent differences are not relevant due to the influence of others environmental factors in evacuation movements of children.
Reference:
ONO, Rosária; VALETIN, Marcos V.; VITTORINO, Fúlvio. Walking speed data of fire drills at an elementary school. In: INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM HUMAN BEHAVIOUR IN FIRE SYMPOSIUM, 5., 2012, Cambridge. Proceedings… 11p
