Here’s an interesting story at The Economist on the current state of the art of simulating large numbers of individuals. I wonder if they could use it to figure out more efficient ways to get people on and off of planes?
3 thoughts on “Modeling Crowds”
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More efficient ways of getting on and off planes?
That’s Easy!
-Use the Back Door-
If you enter at the rear of the plane and leave from the front then the first people in, will go quickly to the front of the plane so they can be the first ones out. This makes the highest value seats the hardest to get while leaving the lower value seats open and unblocked. The only problem is how to build a jetway that will attach to any plane from the front and the rear… but that is just simple engineering with a cost/benefit analysis.
Ryan’s right, though I’d argue that using both doors at every gate would be even more efficient. Have rear-of-the-plane coach passengers board and deboard from the rear, and everybody’s happier.
It’s not as if the entire cabin crew needs to be standing in front of first-class greeting passengers for the entire twenty minutes it takes to get people onboard and settled in these days — put one by the rear door too.
Actually I think there is some guy in Britain that uses computer simulations for that very purpose. He was on the news a bit after that recent crash in New York. Apparently, he was involved in an incident in Britain where a plane had caught fire while on the taxi way. So, he got to see first hand how people react to the accident.
I dunno if he is using the exact same methodology indicated in the original link though.
Interestingly he said that there is really no where on the plane that is safer than any where else. It really just depends on what type of crash you experience that dictates the survival rates from the front to the back of the airplane.
In general though, people sitting on the aisles have a slight edge in their survival rates when compared to the people sitting next to the window. Also, the people that are closer to the evacuation points on the airplane have an even better chance to live and tell about it.
The important thing he says, is to count the number of rows you are sitting from an evacuation point. Because, in a crash there is likely to be fire and the smoke will prevent you from being able to see. So, one must feel their way out — and if you are me punch and kick everyone out of the way. For this reason, this guy recommended carrying a fire escape smoke hood aboard so you can actually see where you are going – and where those punches are going to land =P