Thank you for your interest in participating in these trials. We have now recruited sufficient people and so we are closing the registration process. Please keep an eye on the FSEG (http://fseg.gre.ac.uk) web site as we often run trials and require volunteers.

VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED FOR BEHAVIOUR EXPERIMENTS

The Fire Safety Engineering Group of the University of Greenwich will be undertaking a series of experimental trials in March 2013 investigating how pedestrians move through public spaces. This research will contribute to improving safety and the design of stations and their surrounding environments.

Volunteers will be required to walk in an outside space, along with a number of other participants, while negotiating physical obstacles that may be found in and around a station environment. Volunteers will not be exposed to any conditions that would not be typically found while exiting a London Underground station. The trials will take place in the courtyard of the historic buildings on the Maritime Campus of the university located in Greenwich.

Each participant will be paid £45 for one-day participation and you may participate in more than one day. If you are interested please read on.

PURPOSE OF THE TRIALS

The purpose of this study is to better understand the nature of pedestrian interaction with exit configuration and the surrounding area. The project will collect data relating to the movement of people as they move through a simple reconstruction of a station exit environment. The study consists of a number of trials involving varying numbers of volunteers moving through various spatial configurations. The actions of the participants will be recorded on video enabling later detailed analysis of their actions and performance. The data collected will extend our understanding of the performance levels achieved and ultimately to the design of more people-friendly and safer public spaces. The data collected will also contribute to improving computer simulation tools used to simulate evacuation.

The nature of the experiments cannot be fully revealed at this point in time as knowledge of the precise purpose of the experiments will bias the results. However, it can be stated that participants will not be expected to do anything that they would not normally do in exiting a typical London Underground station.

THE VOLUNTEERS

To be eligible to participate, you must:

• Be over 18 years of age,
• Be able to use an underground station, unaided, during rush hour and have done so in the past 12 months.
• NOT be registered blind or partially sighted or have uncorrected hearing disabilities or any other sensory, balance or movement impairments that might affect your movement while walking in a crowd of people,
• NOT be sensitive to moving outside in relatively crowded spaces e.g. as at a train station (i.e. that you do not have agoraphobia / ochlophobia).

If you meet these criteria then you may be considered for the trials. Each participant will be paid £45 for one-day participation to compensate for travel and incidental costs. Participants may take part in more than one trial day and will be paid for each trial day they are involved in. 

THE TRIALS

The trials will take place in the courtyard of one of the historic buildings on the Maritime Campus of the University of Greenwich located in Greenwich. The trials will take place on weekends and you will be required for the entire day (08:00 to 17:00). However, should the trials be completed early, you will be allowed to leave and still receive full payment.

During the trials, you will be given detailed instructions and will then be moved to a holding location adjacent to the courtyard, along with a number of other participants. On the “go” signal, you will be asked to walk in the direction specified up to a designated location. Once the population has reached this point, a signal will be sounded and the trial will be over. That is all that will be involved in the trials. You will be asked to perform this activity several times throughout the day (up to a maximum of approximately 14 times), with the exact number of people taking part in the trial and the surrounding conditions changing each time. Each trial should only take a few minutes, although there may be administrative and logistical activities that take some time between the trials themselves. Participants may therefore be required to wait prior to the start of the trial or prior to completing administrative tasks. Therefore participants should expect to stay for the entire day. While you will be doing nothing more than walking in crowds, you can expect to be on your feet for long periods of time.

During the day there will be two rest periods of approximately 30 minutes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. There will also be a lunch period of approximately 60 minutes. Bottled water will be available during the day. The University cafeteria will be open all day allowing the purchase of soft drinks, soup, sandwiches and confectionary.

ATTIRE

As the trials will be taking place outside during March you are requested to wear warm clothing and appropriate footwear, for example, water proof coat, boots, etc. Sandals, flip flops, open shoes, dress shoes, or high heel shoes are not considered appropriate. As part of the trial, you will be required to wear a coded baseball cap which will be provided to you on the day. Please note that there are no storage facilities for your belongings so you are advised not to bring along bags.

WHEN WILL THE TRIALS TAKE PLACE

The trials will be run over the three days shown below:

16 March 2013 (Saturday): 8:00am ~ 5:00pm

17 March 2013 (Sunday): 8:00am ~ 5:00pm

23 March 2013 (Saturday): 8:00am ~ 5:00pm

REGISTRATION

We request that you specify a range of dates when you would be available to participate in these trials as first choice dates may not be available. We will however endeavour to provide you with your first preference. Please indicate if you are interested in participating in more than one trial.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW, PAYMENT AND CONFIDENTIALITY

Participant agreement to take part in the trials does not affect their right to withdraw from the trial at any stage and at any time. If you wish to withdraw from the trial at any time, you are able to do so and your registration details will be removed. However, payment (£45 for each day) will be made only at the end of the trial day and ONLY on completion of participation in all the allotted trials and on completion of the necessary documentation.

The data collected in the trials will be used for research proposals only and will not be used to identify individuals. Arrangement will be made to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

MORE INFORMATION

For further information please contact:

Ms Karen Judd

Phone: 020 8331 8706 (9:00am ~ 5:00pm, Monday ~ Friday)

Email: exodus@gre.ac.uk

The person responsible for organising and running these trials is the Director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group. His contact details are:

Prof Ed Galea

Phone: 0208 331 8730

Email: e.r.galea@gre.ac.uk

HOW TO GET HERE

The address of campus is Park Row, Greenwich, SE10 9LS. A number of buses can be used to travel to this campus including bus numbers 129, 286, 386, 177, 180 and 188, depending on your initial location. The nearest underground station is Cutty Sark (DLR); the nearest over-ground stations are Greenwich and Maze Hill. . You can find more information concerning the location and parking in detail at the web link:

http://fseg.gre.ac.uk/fire/newlocation.html

WHERE TO GO ONCE ON CAMPUS

On the day of the trials, please go to the University cafeteria located beneath the Chapel in the Queen Mary building where a member of staff will meet you and check you in (see red arrow below). Until you have been checked in you will not be able to participate in the trials, so please make sure that you arrive on time. The cafeteria is at the car park end of the Queen Mary Building and the entrance is on the side of the building facing the Queen Anne building. 

Your time and effort will contribute to the success of this trial. We appreciate your help and look forward to meeting you on the day.

Fire Safety Engineering Group

University of Greenwich

Greenwich Maritime Campus

Greenwich SE10 9LS