Emergency signage system to support security in European rail stations during emergencies
While travellers enjoy the interconnectivity and diversity of underground and overground metro and rail stations in European cities, the maze of tunnels can turn into a nightmare in emergency situations such as fires or terrorist attacks. The EU-funded GETAWAY (Generating simulations to enable testing of alternative routes to improve wayinding in evacuation of over-ground and underground terminals) project addressed this challenge through better escape plans. Project partners developed a sophisticated system that exploits environmental data on developing hazardous situations, supported by video technology that analyses the number of people in a given area. The technology is designed to be integrated into both new and existing transport terminals. The key subsystems are a fire detection and alarm system, image analysis engine, evacuation simulation engine and decision-making engine. The signage system was successfully demonstrated at a rail terminal. Results showed that the new signage design was clear and not confusing in any way. Most of the subjects used the designated exit instead of the nearest one during an emergency. They also felt the right decision was made in their choice of exit. Overall, the intelligent active dynamic signage system was shown to effectively evacuate large crowds from railway stations. It is 103 % more visible without changing the size or content of signs. By using new image analysis methods, the accuracy of people counting even in challenging situations such as complex structures and changing lighting conditions can be improved by over 90 %. It is capable of performing simulations three times faster than in real time. People are more likely to choose the developed system over existing ones, and are able to make faster decisions because of it. Thanks to GETAWAY, managing safe evacuation in rapidly changing and complex rail and underground environments becomes much less challenging.
Keywords
Emergency signage, security, rail stations, emergencies, metro stations, evacuation
