There is potential to use non-human biological entities for empirical study of pedestrian crowds under emergency conditions. A literature review isused to examine how the study of mass movement of organisms might enhancethe safety of pedestrians during emergency egress. Recent findings from experiments with panicking ants are then presented to illustrate, using twoscenarios, how such experiments can potentially be used as a basis for the design of solutions for safe egress of pedestrians. Although the experiments are still in progress and it is too early to draw definitive conclusions with statistical significance, some preliminary results show promise in using ants to test models for pedestrian traffic in emergency conditions. Owing to the lack of complementary data during emergency/panic situations, experiments such as these with ants provide alternate empirical ways totest whether designs developed using mathematical models actually hold potential to be efficacious and improve the safety of pedestrians.
Abstract