| Summary: | 博士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 建築系 === 95 === Due to a dramatic increase in senior population, Taiwan has become an aging society since 1993. The study aims to identify senior horizontal, vertical walking speed, flow speed, and walking behavior derived from traveling through different width of opening of dwelling and to serve as reference for designing eldercare facilities and conducting an evacuation plan verification inspection. Three senior eldercare facilities under the supervision of Taipei Municipal City Government were chosen as a study area. The results indicate that the average horizontal speed for self-walk senior is 1.12m/ sec and that the average vertical speed is composed of the average stair ascent speed of 0.63m/sec and the average descent speed of 0.69m/ sec. Seven variables, including gender, age, length of retirement, education, occupation before retirement, exercise duration per day, and BMI, are used to test whether they demonstrate significant effects on horizontal speed and vertical speed. The results display that the variables demonstrate no significant effects on walking speed acquired by the physically independent elders, while only the gender variable plays significant difference in walking stick users. The results also display that no significant relationships are found between the variables and the average stair descent speed, but 3 variables-- gender, age, and exercise duration per day demonstrate significant effects on the average stair ascent speed.
As for investigating senior flow speed and walking behavior, the results reveal that their flow speed ranges from 0.35 to 0.38m/sec and the maximum density is 3.33 persons/㎡ because of their sluggish movement and a larger body ellipse required. The results also reveal that the desirable Q value ranges from 1.00 to 2.20 persons/ m× sec. For eldercare facility users, a recommended Neff value ranging from 30 to 35 persons/ m × minute is suggested. Through observation, It is found that the seniors lined up and most of them walked directly through the center when they traveled through a 90-cm-wide opening of dwelling. As for a120-cm-wide opening and a 150- cm-wide opening, both of them allowed either two seniors standing abreast or one leading on the left and the other following on the right to travel through. After traveling through the opening, they veered to the right. It is particularly apparent that senior walking behavior was affected by the walking speed of the preceding one and the pressure from the one standing behind as they traveled through a 90-cm-wide opening. Senior walking behavior patterns such as bypass slow moving, turning around, making changes to their walking paths, or a slight traveling backward were not found in this study.
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