Define “safety.” I can name entire cities that permanently closed off exits when the main threat was seen as coming from invading Romans.
Am I being silly? Visit any commercial facility or apartment complex and you’ll find code-required exits that are permanently chained, fenced, and barricaded shut. Tomorrow you MIGHT have a fire. Today you CERTAINLY have Mickey Meth-head camping in that back stairwell.
Ditto for fire escapes. How many times have they been used by burglars? Show me an old-fashioned fire escape and I’ll show you nailed-shut windows with boards over them.
Heck, I “improved egress” by adding a rear door to my house. Five weeks later some troll took a battering ram to it! (Thank heaven my CAT shaped him off). The new door, BTW, is the same door that stood up to the storm surge of Hurricane Sandy and the rampaging Hamas horde last October 7th. It should be secure enough.
On a more general note, the egress stairs at the World Trade Center certainly appeared adequate. Exiting people did not impede entering firemen. I’d say the designers got the egress design just right. (What they guessed wrong was the size of the crashing plane). My point is: Don’t fix what works.
