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Exit-Only Hallway

 <edit> A no-moving-parts turnstyle, capable of high volume traffic </edit>
 
(+3, -3) 		  [vote for,
against]

Fill a hallway with slightly flexible spikes all facing so that people may easily slip past as they exit a building, but so that they cannot push past all the spikes to enter. A certain density will be needed to avert injury.

To explain the problem being addressed: Emergency exits in buildings are viewed as security risks; non approved people might enter through a held-open door. As a result, property managers chain emergency fire exits shut. This tends to be fatal in the event of an emergency.

—Laughs Last, Jan 03 2005

Argentina club fire http://www.suntimes...cst-nws-club01.html
I didn't realize there had been one so recently. The description seems typical. [Laughs Last, Jan 03 2005]


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Annotation:







       terrible idea. what happens when the 'threat' people are running away from moves round to in front of the exit they are trying to leave from?
there are much better (safer/cheaper) ways of securing exits, but these will still not prevent ignorant/greedy/thoughtless people from locking them shut.
—neilp, Jan 03 2005
   

       What threat people?   

       Also, show me a better way.
—Laughs Last, Jan 03 2005
   

       [laughs] subsitute the word 'fire', 'knife man','gunman','psycho' for 'threat'.

//Show me a better way// what about a thick door which has a release button about 1m away from it on the inside. It's very difficult for people to break in (because there is an alarm connected to the police and on site security), but in the event of a fire*, an escapee simply presses the button to release the lock.

* see alternatives above.
—neilp, Jan 03 2005
   

       Most of the percieved security risk in nightclubs is the expectation that people will sneak into a building without paying an entrance fee. Just get one paying person in the front door, and their whole group in the back door.   

       Your methods rely upon working alarms and police/fire response. I also cannot say that that I have ever seen an emergency exit door without a door-mounted panic bar.
—Laughs Last, Jan 03 2005
   

       I'm not saying current exit technologies are perfect, they're obviously not if people can easily prevent them working, I just feel that using *any* technique to only allow one way travel along an emergency route is foolish in the extreme.
—neilp, Jan 03 2005
   

       This may only be a useful thing in a location where the exit is to a truly safe location. Never in an interior hall or stair where re-entry is desirable to find alternate routes. And this is equally worthless in securing a building against an armed gang.
—Laughs Last, Jan 03 2005
   

       Have you never seen full-height turnstiles?   

       It seems to me that much of the concerns stemming from emergency-exit doors that only unlock from the inside could be mitigated by constructing the doors with a 'glass seal' lock which could only be opened from the inside but which, once opened, could be re-opened from either side.
—supercat, Jan 04 2005
   

       I've seen full height turnstiles get jammed by bodyparts when a crowd presses against them.
—Laughs Last, Jan 04 2005
   

       This could also be acheived by using a travlator set to move at a speed higher than most people can run - only the fittest gain illegal entry to MY nightclub...
—hippo, Jan 04 2005
   


 

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