Evacuees are likely to respond and move forming groups. However specific data about grouping is generally unavailable and the relationship between response and movement times and specific groupings are unknown. Using a simple method, we measure behavioural cohesion of occupants during evacuation processes. The case study involves using the method in a bus station, a sport centre and a library. Results suggest that proximity (visual/verbal contact) is an important factor but not decisive in the formation of evacuation groups. Social ties and whether occupants share a target and/or an activity before the alarm are also deemed to be important factors. This study provides an exciting opportunity to advance our knowledge of social influence and group formation during evacuation.

Evacuation modelling is continuously open to new scenarios and applications. This study examines the possibility to simulate and predict the evacuation of workers aboard vessels in dockyards. First, we provide new data for a better understanding and quantification of workers’ evacuation performance. Second, we use an existing model (STEPS) and apply a validation protocol from the observed evacuation of 150 workers during an unannounced evacuation drill of a Ro-Pax ferry during the repair period in a dry dock. Despite the uncertainty of initial conditions to configure the scenario, the model accurately represents the observed evacuation (e.g. functional analysis ERD = 0.08; EPC = 1; SC = 0.89) suggesting that current agent-based evacuation models, with appropriate inputs and small adaptations, could be applied to these new challenging scenarios. Overall, this study provides evidence for this new application opportunity to model developers, model users and the research community and promotes the use of evacuation modelling for assessing fire safety in shipyards.

The understanding of merging flows during evacuation can have important implications for rail tunnels safety. This paper explores the interdependence of the merging of flows coming from the walkway with those exiting the train. Eight train exit configurations were tested using a mock-up of a rail car exit and a lateral walkway involving 77 participants (mean age 48; standard deviation 15; range 18-74). New measurements and data processing methods are proposed allowing statistical analysis to be performed. The results provide quantitative evidence of the preferences between flows. We found that the bias in the evacuation was slightly in favour of the walkway when train exit was at 0 m in height. Contrary to expectations a moderate dominance of walkway flow was observed at 0.8 m in height. Less variation was found for the train exit at 1.2 m in height with a clear priority of walkway flow. This happened despite deference behaviours performed by participants, i.e. people stopped to help those entering from the rail car. This novel contribution aims to provide a new method for those involved in development and validation of new and current evacuation modelling tools and those who want to improve their understanding of merging behaviour during evacuation in rail tunnels.