The User’s Guide to Evacuee Behavior

Currently, there is no comprehensive theory describing evacuee behavior. This is reflected in the egress models available. Given this, there is a greater onus on model users to configure the models such that they manually account for expected evacuee performance given the scenarios examined. This is a difficult task made all the more difficult by the lack of sufficient guidance, theoretical support or empirical evidence available. This article will briefly present a set of behavioral expectations related to evacuee performance that have been identified within the field. These expectations might then influence the model user’s attempts to develop egress scenarios, configure egress models in order to assess performance or interpret the results produced.