ABSTRACT
In teaching buildings, there must always be a plan for evacuation in the case of an emergency. While a teaching building may have an evacuation plan in place, the decision to choose a route to move out of a building for evacuees may be complicated due to the panic caused by emergency events such as fires and chemical spills. In general, many factors impact this decision-making process. Examples include the architecture and geometry of the building, number of exits and their locations, number of evacuees, and obstacles on the pathway [1–3]. The most commonly used strategy is distance-based, that is, people choose to walk to the nearest exit. This may not work if there is congestion on the pathway. Some people choose the exits that they are familiar with, or simply follow others [4, 5]. Therefore, it is important to develop a more scientific way to guide evacuation flow.
