Applying Persona method for describing users of escape routes

Subways are an important means of transport and stations can be filled with thousands of passengers at a time and have limited space for movement. In emergencies such as fire, the life of passengers is at high risk. But not only spatial restrictions of escape routes, also passenger characteristics are important. Subway passengers differ widely in their motivation and individual behavior. In this paper, we present a method offering a more elaborate approach for including characteristics, the Persona method. In this case the results of field studies, passenger counts, interviews and literature review led to the description of different Personas. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of PED2014.