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Human Factors Associated with the Selection of Lifts/Elevators or Stairs in Emergency and Normal Usage Conditions

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Abstract

This paper presents an overview of human factors data collected via an online survey related to the use of lifts (elevators) and stairs during both circulation and evacuation scenarios. Survey participants were presented with a series of hypothetical situations and asked how they would behave. The survey was split into two broad sections, the first dealing with normal circulation usage of lifts/stairs and the second dealing with evacuation usage of lifts/stairs. Detailed demographic information about each participant was also collected. In total some 468 people from 23 countries completed the survey. An overview of the survey and initial results are presented in this paper.

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Abbreviations

N:

Number of participants that gave a response to a specific question(s) or provided demographic information

y:

Proportion people that would consider using a lift

x:

Floor number that the people are located on above ground level

p:

Probability (that the observed values are different from the expected due to chance)

χ2 :

Chi-square value

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG), University of Greenwich, London, UK

    M. J. Kinsey, E. R. Galea & P. J. Lawrence

Authors
  1. M. J. Kinsey
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  2. E. R. Galea
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  3. P. J. Lawrence
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to E. R. Galea.

Appendix

Appendix

1.1 A1. Online Survey

A summary of the questions posed in the on-line survey is presented in this Appendix, the full survey can be found at http://fseg.gre.ac.uk/elevator/. Presented in Appendix A1.1 is the full text of each of the hypothetical scenarios posed in the section dealing with circulation. Presented in Appendix A1.2 are the questions posed for each of the circulation scenarios. For each scenario the same questions were repeated. Presented in Appendix A1.3 is the hypothetical scenario posed for evacuation and the associated questions.

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Kinsey, M.J., Galea, E.R. & Lawrence, P.J. Human Factors Associated with the Selection of Lifts/Elevators or Stairs in Emergency and Normal Usage Conditions. Fire Technol 48, 3–26 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-010-0176-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-010-0176-7

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