Follow people or signs? A novel way-finding method based on experiments and simulation

Yu Zhu, Tao Chen, Ning Ding, Mohcine Chraibi and Wei-Cheng Fan

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2021, vol. 573, issue C

Abstract: Evacuation signs are important for emergency evacuation in complex buildings. The interaction between evacuees and evacuation signs attracted much attention. However, current research mainly considers the visibility of signs and depends on inaccurate video analysis and subjective after-drill questionnaires, and the impact of surrounding people is ignored. This paper utilized an eye-tracking device to collect the sign detection data objectively and concentrated on the following behavior with surrounding people. Based on the results of a series of experiments, it is found that not all pedestrians detect the signs due to objective and subjective ignorance. Even the sign is detected, there exist some evacuees who decide to follow other pedestrians rather than sign guidance. Consequently, a new interaction logic and a new wayfinding method are applied in an evacuation model. The simulation results show the significant difference between the two logics in this paper. It describes that the original logic overestimates the sign guidance effect and underestimates the evacuation time strongly. The new logic can be applied in the building’s design and security evaluation to enhance evacuation safety.

Keywords: Pedestrian evacuation; Wayfinding; Evacuation sign; Eye-tracking device; Evacuation model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:573:y:2021:i:c:s0378437121001989

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2021.125926

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