We've written previously about footfall-induced vibrations in sensitive buildings like labs and hospitals. In those earlier thoughts, we discussed the issue of walker speed: it turns out that pace is by far the most-important parameter in predicting walker-generated floor vibrations. It's true that walker weight and shoe type matter a little bit, but speed just completely dominates. So, how fast do people really walk in buildings, anyway?
Since it's not obvious how fast people actually walk, and since walker speed is so critical to floor vibration performance, we decided to produce a YouTube video illustrating a few different scenarios. Take a look (below), and let us know if this helps inform your intuition as much as it did ours.