LAUSR

The improvement of evacuation efficiency for pedestrians mixed with wheelchair users has practical significance to public safety. In this study, a series of pedestrian experiments are performed in corridors considering assisted wheelchair users. It is observed that an able-bodied pedestrian’s unimpeded speed and relaxation time are 38.9% higher and 24.5% shorter than those of wheelchair users, respectively. The forward proxemic values of wheelchair users are smaller than their backward ones. However, both are larger than those of able-bodied participants. The presence of wheelchair users makes the pedestrian flow have a smaller density range (0.59–4.17 m−2) and flow rate (1.49 ± 0.21 (m s)−1). The critical headway and safe response time (reciprocal of the proportionality constant of the headway–speed relation) are 11.76% and 20.93% longer, respectively. The findings illustrate a lower efficiency and higher safety requirements for pedestrian flow including wheelchair users, which is valuable for simulation construction, facility design or evacuation guidance.