Comparisons of Evacuation Efficiency and Pre-travel Activity Times in Response to a Sounder and Two Different Voice Alarm Messages

David Purser ()
Additional contact information
David Purser: Hartfort Environmental Research

A chapter in Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics 2008, 2010, pp 121-134 from Springer

Abstract: Summary Previous studies (Bellamy and Geter, 1990, BRE Report BR 172; Proulx and Sime, 1991, Fire Safety Science, 3rd International Symposium, pp. 843–852; Sime, 1998, Human Behaviour in Fire, Proceedings of the First International Symposium, pp. 299–308; Purser and Bensilum, 2001, Safety Science 38, pp. 157–182) have indicated that recorded voice alarm messages can be more efficient than sounders in motivating occupants to evacuate buildings, and that they produce shorter pre-travel activity (pre-movement) times (PTAT), sometimes by a wide margin. More recently, with increased use of voice alarms and other voice announcements, people may have become less responsive. For this study, monitored evacuations using voice alarms were conducted in a shopping centre, a theatre and a large office building (Purser and Bensilum, 2001, Safety Science 38, pp. 157–182). An experimental study was then set up in a university teaching room under hidden video surveillance, in order to examine responsiveness to different alarm systems (including a sounder, long and short voice messages) and provide PTAT data. The findings from both the monitored evacuations and the experimental study were that voice alarms provided more reliable and shorter PTAT response times than sounders, especially in “awake and unfamiliar” behavioural scenarios. Occupants tended to listen to the full voice message and sometimes the first repeat before starting to travel. The short voice message produced a shorter but less reliable PTAT response. Group interactions had a major effect on response behaviours and times.

Keywords: Fire Safety; Shopping Centre; Short Message; Alarm System; Meeting Room (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-642-04504-2_9

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783642045042

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-04504-2_9

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().