

For a Quick Exit, Just Block the Fire Door - timf
http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2009/08/for-quick-exit-just-block-fire-door.html

======
tel
Reminds me of a subway station in Beijing. It's one of the more popular ones,
an exchange between major lines, and once people exit the train they need to
go down stairs to get to the other platform. Just in front of the stairs is an
enormous shoulder-height roadblock, ostentatiously there to prevent the mass
from just _shoving_ people down the stairs.

Oddly, though, it also makes the traffic just breeze through that part of the
station. People near the obstruction form nice orderly lines and, knowing that
it's totally useless to try to push by, keep them.

Later down the stairs there's a 90 degree turn and immediately the crowd slows
down again

------
DanielStraight
Applying science to things most people don't even think about = awesome.

------
timf
Cool, but I think the test should be done in full fight/flight conditions,
would it change the result? Any ethical ways to even do that?

(rigging up an A/B situation on two sides of a theater and hoping it catches
on fire one day?)

~~~
jrockway
How about, "the first ten people to exit get $50"?

~~~
roundsquare
Really neat idea.

I'd say you want to give more people an incentive to get out, since part of
the dynamics will be hour the middle and back of the crowd work, but I really
like the idea of the cash reward.

The only difficulty will be to make it big enough that people feel the same
stress as when they think there is a fire but not so big as to bankrupt the
study :)

~~~
jrockway
Yeah, you are exactly right. After the people in the back see 10 people exit,
they won't care anymore.

How about, start with n dollars, and as time goes by, decrement $n. At the
end, $n is split amongst all participants. So in this case, there is an
incentive for people at the end to get out quickly, as the amount of money
they get depends upon how fast they get out. (There is no "end" until everyone
is out.)

This might be closer to exiting a burning building, but it is still not quite
the same. (People want money, but probably not as much as not dying in a
fire.)

~~~
roundsquare
Yeah, thats probably as close we'll get. You want to get each person to think
of themselves first. This may not cover the parent with young kids scenario,
but it seems pretty close/good.

Now... the researchers are going to run into issues if someone desperate for
money decides to punch some old lady in the face to get out first and claim
his $50...

------
crcoffey
The only issue I can see here is people not understanding the science of it,
And only having it make them more anxious or induce panic at not being able to
easily get to the exit.

------
terpua
I wonder if this could be applied to car traffic, especially in emerging
countries, where traffic is at best rush hour conditions during most of the
day.

~~~
bm98
It already is: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout>

~~~
terpua
Unfortunately, roundabouts don't work here in Manila. We have a couple here
and it's gridlock. I think car traffic engineering has many universal
qualities but also quirks that need to be tweaked per country.

------
byoung2
"the next step is to program models of people intelligent enough to self-
organize into a line"

Goog luck with that...while they're at it, they might as well program Santa
Claus and the Easter Bunny!

