Quantification of the movement characteristics for the elderly assisted by the young through exit

The elderly, as a vulnerable group with lower reaction speed and movement ability, usually need assistance from others in transportation and evacuation. Experiments of elderly pedestrians passing through exits under the assistance of the young are carried out. When walking in the room (x ∈ [0,4m]), the elderly and young in one assistant group have synergetic movement angles and speeds. When approaching the exit (x ∈ [4,5m]), the assistant group compresses its spatial distance (SD: from 0.465 m to 0.408 m). To give priority to the old through the exit, the young adjust their movement angles more dramatically and make sacrifices in speeds. It shows that the young have larger movement angles (P < 0.001 in Pair-Sample T Test) and lower speeds (P = 1.145e⁻²²⁷ in Pair-Sample T Test) than the elderly. In our experiment, 78% of the young chose the left side of the old to give support and 22% chose the right one which has manifest influences on the movement characteristics of the assistant group. When the young use the right hand as the dominant one to assist the old, they stand on the left rear of the old with the mean spatial angle is 95.63° to provide support forces. When the left hand is the dominant one, the young stand slightly ahead of the old with the mean spatial angle is 279.69° to guide the movement direction and speed for the old. The findings can help to better characterize the movement of the young assisting the old in the crowded environment.