How big should your average Escape Pod be?

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Lifeboats that take a long time to load to capacity are niche things if the intent is to be helpful when your ship is about to explode. Smaller is better when it comes to ejection. Just eject a few warp engines, too, and then propel the small pods to safety with those. The engines might otherwise be known as shuttlecraft...

LifeBoats that take that long to load, you might as well use a Emergency Transporter Unit and beam yourself to the shuttle bay, hop on board the Shuttle Craft, and GTFO.

The reason I decided to limit my DiTrigon shaped Escape Pod to 9x people is because loading 9x people is that right balance of "Alot of People" vs "Load People in Fast enough to GTFO".

 

[publiusr]

Flatter designs might lend themselves to Miranda pods. Busier designs with smaller pods…or a mix.

 

[Deks]

LifeBoats that take that long to load, you might as well use a Emergency Transporter Unit and beam yourself to the shuttle bay, hop on board the Shuttle Craft, and GTFO.

The reason I decided to limit my DiTrigon shaped Escape Pod to 9x people is because loading 9x people is that right balance of "Alot of People" vs "Load People in Fast enough to GTFO".

Speaking of which, in case of abandoning ship, some of the crew would likely opt to head to the shuttles. More space and better equipped (shields and weapons).

 

[Timo]

We see shuttles preferred in all the Kelvinverse evacs, which incidentally also happen far away from home or safe havens.

We hear shuttles mentioned in the backstory of "The Battle", which also appears to involve a distant battle site.

Pods are used in basically all other references. Except when DS9 is evacuated, since there is no safe haven anywhere near in those cases (Bajor has become unsafe, say). Deep space is seldom involved, although hostile space and Defiant evacuations go hand in hand. Voyager of course is its own thing there.

Evacuating to the separable saucer section is only relevant in one incident, ST:GEN. It happens for tactical reasons in other cases, including ST:B.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Speaking of which, in case of abandoning ship, some of the crew would likely opt to head to the shuttles. More space and better equipped (shields and weapons).

If you can get to a shuttle, you probably should, but if all the shuttles are gone, get to a Escape Pod.

Everything is situational and depends on what is available or accessible based on your current location and what you can beam to.

If there is alot of interference that prevents you from beaming to the shuttle bay, best to get to the Escape Pod then sit on a ship that is about to go boom.

 

[Dumbbell]

Even with 400 Tactical fighters, if they're destroyed, they need an option to escape.

These are your option to escape. If you can't escape with them, you won't fare any better in an escape pod.