Crowd Flow Analysis

Introduction

Being alert and perceptive to your surrounding is key to safety while in a crowd. But what if you are responsible for the event? One needs to be aware of the audience experience from the time they buy their ticket, arrive at the venue, experience the performance, and go home.

Causes definitions.

proximate- immediately responsible

distal- fundamental reason the accident happened.

Phases of Crowd movement

In crowd safety terminology we are concerned with the audience ingress, circulation, and egress from the venue. We will be examining the routes the audience will follow potential hazards and methods to keep them safe while in the event spaces. We will examine planning necessary to mitigate a negative outcome by examining site design, management of crowds and information systems.

Identify the risks before the event starts.

The parts of safety event planning.

1. Design
   1. Different uses of space (Site areas) static moving holding areas
   2. Capacity ingress/egress flow rates for normal use and then emergency use
   3. Mapping the locations for ingress, circulation, and egress during normal and emergency situations.
2. Management
   1. Process, procedures, communication systems
   2. Chain of command on normal and then emergency situations
   3. RED FLAGGING emergency situations and relaying information to the safety officer/police
3. Information
   1. Signage, maps
   2. Social media, news reports
   3. Site communication systems
   4. Normal and Emergency information
   5. Not understanding crowd behavior

Human behavior

People navigate through their environment with a goal in mind. Their choice of route can be reduced to two simple rules: 

1. Individuals will take the shortest available route to get from source to destination. Where the ‘shortest’ is defined by shortest time (which may not be the shortest distance) to arrive at the planned destination.

2. People like to exit using the same route they used to enter.

RAMP analysis

Routes—Area—Movement—Profile

• Routes Direction and distribution, modal split and factors that may impact routes. 
• Areas Static and moving spaces defining the site areas. 
• Movement The arrival and departure profile, coupling routes and areas to time. 
• Profile The crowd composition, type, demographic, history, and communication elements When we work with police, safety.

1. Design
   1. Different uses of space (Site areas) static moving holding areas
   2. Capacity ingress/egress flow rates for normal use and then emergency use
   3. Mapping the locations for ingress, circulation, and egress during normal and emergency situations.

MOVEMENT Once you have drawn the routing maps and area maps, you can assess the crowd flow rates. Flow rates will tell you how much time it might take an area to fill, and how long it might take the crowds to flow into, around and away from a site. For this you need to assess the narrowest point along a route line (using the route maps).

There are three components to a dynamic risk.

Location—Risk may be focused on a specific location (front of stage) and may not manifest until the critical density/flow is reached. 

Duration—Risk may exist for a short time (entry and exit systems). 

Severity—Risk may have different levels of severity during the event and a single risk value is not sufficient to describe the risk.  All the above can be influenced by external influences such as the weather.

Crowd Analysis Systems

Bibliography

Still, G Keith. Introduction to Crowd Science. CRC Press. Kindle Edition.

Assignments

1. Quiz analysis terminology inside Brightspace, Quiz tab, crowd analysis terminology icon.

our assignment is on the project tab. FOH part 2 crowd analysis. Each team will use the ground plan, event and audience description from last week.

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