Search

Introduction: Exit selection is crucial in indoor emergency evacuation. Domestic and foreign scholars have found that exit choice behavior is influenced by three factors: environmental factors, social interactions, and individual internal factors. Previous studies have shown that in addition to a single environmental factor affecting exit decisions, the influence of other available exit options in the context can ultimately lead to a reversal of exit decisions -The context effect. However, the impact of context effects on exit decisions in emergency situations has not been thoroughly explored. Therefore, this article identifies three basic independent variables: context effects, crowd flows, and gender differences, to study the exit decisions of different gender groups facing different crowd flows, as well as how context effects affect existing exit decisions. Methods: In this paper, we used virtual reality technology to construct an indoor fire scene and designed a total of 15 virtual experiments with different crowd distribution or context effects. 131 participants were divided into two groups, male and female, and their exit decisions were observed under different crowd flows and contextual effects. Results: The research results show that: 1) Both men and women have an innate preference to avoid crowded exits, and the proportion of following crowd evacuation significantly decreases when there are crowded crowds in the scene; 2) The exit decisions of female participants are more influenced by the crowd, while men tend to be more influenced by context effects when evacuating independently; 3) The context effects on exit decisions in emergency situations is statistically significant, and this performance is more significant in the male population. Further analysis reveals that similarity effects have a more significant impact on exit decisions than attraction effects. Discussions: These findings provide deeper insights into the exit choice behavior of the population and may contribute to the design of safe exits in indoor buildings. In addition, this article emphasizes the importance of context effects and provides a foundation for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evacuation rules for pedestrians in emergencies are of great significance for the design of building exits, exit management, and evacuation facilities. Based on the mixed reality evacuation LVC simulation system we developed, in this paper, three kinds of pedestrian exit selection experiments were carried out, in which the influence of distance and exit selection on pedestrian exit selection was studied. In line with common sense, during the single-factor control tests, the participants preferred the exit with fewer people and at a closer distance. The two-factor combined effect of the above two factors was also studied. It can be found that the participants preferred to choose the least crowded exit with a closer distance for evacuation. Among these two factors, the participants would give priority to the number of people at the exit. In addition, participants show different trajectories for the difference in the number of people at the two exits. Their walking trajectory was close to an arc line in the case of an equal number of people at two exits. The results of this paper provide a theoretical basis for research on designing evacuation facilities and guiding evacuees, and allows us to explore a new approach for mixed reality evacuation research by conducting virtual crowd experiments in a real environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the interplay between exit selection models and local pedestrian movement patterns within floor field frameworks. Specifically, this investigation analysed the performance of a multinomial logit exit choice model, incorporating both expected utility theory and cumulative prospect theory frameworks when coupled with three distinct local-level pedestrian movement models (FF-Von Neumann, FF-Moore, and NSFF). The expected utility theory framework considers the deterministic component as a linear relationship, while the cumulative prospect theory framework further considers the decision-maker's risky attitudes by transforming objective terms into subjective terms using a power value function. The core objective was to comprehend how local movement dynamics, as represented by the floor field models, influence decision-making during exit selection. Comparative analyses revealed intriguing variations between the three local models, despite their shared expected utility theory-based exit choice framework. These discrepancies stemmed from the diverse pedestrian trajectory behaviours generated by each model. Consequently, these local dynamics impacted the decision-maker's assessment of critical factors, such as the number of evacuees close to the decision-maker ( N C D M ) and the number of evacuees close to an exit ( N C E ), which the exit choice model incorporates. These assessments, in turn, significantly affected higher-level decision-making. The integration of the three models with the multinomial logit exit choice model, using either cumulative prospect theory and expected utility theory frameworks, further strengthened the observed bilateral relationship. While the specific nature of this relationship varied depending on the chosen framework and its implementation details, these consistent findings demonstrate the robustness of the results. This reinforced the influence of local-level pedestrian dynamics on higher-level exit selection, highlighting the importance of accurate crowd dynamics modelling, especially when advanced exit choice models consider local movement factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evacuation rules for pedestrians in emergencies are of great significance for the design of building exits, exit management, and evacuation facilities. Based on the mixed reality evacuation LVC simulation system we developed, in this paper, three kinds of pedestrian exit selection experiments were carried out, in which the influence of distance and exit selection on pedestrian exit selection was studied. In line with common sense, during the single-factor control tests, the participants preferred the exit with fewer people and at a closer distance. The two-factor combined effect of the above two factors was also studied. It can be found that the participants preferred to choose the least crowded exit with a closer distance for evacuation. Among these two factors, the participants would give priority to the number of people at the exit. In addition, participants show different trajectories for the difference in the number of people at the two exits. Their walking trajectory was close to an arc line in the case of an equal number of people at two exits. The results of this paper provide a theoretical basis for research on designing evacuation facilities and guiding evacuees, and allows us to explore a new approach for mixed reality evacuation research by conducting virtual crowd experiments in a real environment.

Building evacuation can be challenging due to complex environments. A cognitive map is one of the most influential factors leading to different strategies of egress for individuals, yet there is little discussion about how pre-event experience influences individual exit choice. This study explores how pre-event spatial experience influences the evacuation exit choice. We conducted a semi-structured interview with a single evacuation drill involving 70 participants in a shopping center in Bandung, Indonesia. Participants were asked to choose an exit point in an evacuation scenario and were then interviewed about their reasoning. Analysis from the video footage of the evacuation and interview transcriptions showed four pre-event spatial experiences that influenced individual exit choice: habitual path preference, past traverse experience, access to the building, and associative events. Four elements from pre-event spatial experiences from this study are accessibility, familiarity, orientation ability, and social interaction influence exit choice. The findings contribute to the understanding of interaction between visitor behavior and circulation path. They provide insight about how experience forms familiarity as an important aspect in determining evacuation route. Lastly, this paper discusses the behavioral explanations underlying these findings and areas for future work.

This study investigated the interplay between exit selection models and local pedestrian movement patterns within floor field frameworks. Specifically, this investigation analysed the performance of a multinomial logit exit choice model, incorporating both expected utility theory and cumulative prospect theory frameworks when coupled with three distinct local-level pedestrian movement models (FF-Von Neumann, FF-Moore, and NSFF). The expected utility theory framework considers the deterministic component as a linear relationship, while the cumulative prospect theory framework further considers the decision-maker’s risky attitudes by transforming objective terms into subjective terms using a power value function. The core objective was to comprehend how local movement dynamics, as represented by the floor field models, influence decision-making during exit selection. Comparative analyses revealed intriguing variations between the three local models, despite their shared expected utility theory-based exit choice framework. These discrepancies stemmed from the diverse pedestrian trajectory behaviours generated by each model. Consequently, these local dynamics impacted the decision-maker’s assessment of critical factors, such as the number of evacuees close to the decision-maker (NCDM) and the number of evacuees close to an exit (NCE), which the exit choice model incorporates. These assessments, in turn, significantly affected higher-level decision-making. The integration of the three models with the multinomial logit exit choice model, using either cumulative prospect theory and expected utility theory frameworks, further strengthened the observed bilateral relationship. While the specific nature of this relationship varied depending on the chosen framework and its implementation details, these consistent findings demonstrate the robustness of the results. This reinforced the influence of local-level pedestrian dynamics on higher-level exit selection, highlighting the importance of accurate crowd dynamics modelling, especially when advanced exit choice models consider local movement factors.

Exit choice is essential for pedestrian safety and evacuation efficiency during the context of an emergency. Cumulative prospect theory is a widespread realistic decision-making theory that can transform choice outcomes and probabilities into subjective terms and integrate them as a parameter of cumulative prospect value (CPV), which determines the decision. The main contribution of this paper is the use of the CPV to predict exit choice. Furthermore, the different decision-making rules including Max, exponential(Expo), and Ratio (i.e., the three variable choice functions) were summarized and examined. This study used a confusion matrix to compare the predicted results with experimental data. Consequently, the parameters of Accuracy and F1-score showed that the predictions from Max and Expo were significantly more realistic while the results from Ratio were much more robust.

Introduction: Exit selection is crucial in indoor emergency evacuation. Domestic and foreign scholars have found that exit choice behavior is influenced by three factors: environmental factors, social interactions, and individual internal factors. Previous studies have shown that in addition to a single environmental factor affecting exit decisions, the influence of other available exit options in the context can ultimately lead to a reversal of exit decisions -The context effect. However, the impact of context effects on exit decisions in emergency situations has not been thoroughly explored. Therefore, this article identifies three basic independent variables: context effects, crowd flows, and gender differences, to study the exit decisions of different gender groups facing different crowd flows, as well as how context effects affect existing exit decisions., Methods: In this paper, we used virtual reality technology to construct an indoor fire scene and designed a total of 15 virtual experiments with different crowd distribution or context effects. 131 participants were divided into two groups, male and female, and their exit decisions were observed under different crowd flows and contextual effects., Results: The research results show that: 1) Both men and women have an innate preference to avoid crowded exits, and the proportion of following crowd evacuation significantly decreases when there are crowded crowds in the scene; 2) The exit decisions of female participants are more influenced by the crowd, while men tend to be more influenced by context effects when evacuating independently; 3) The context effects on exit decisions in emergency situations is statistically significant, and this performance is more significant in the male population. Further analysis reveals that similarity effects have a more significant impact on exit decisions than attraction effects., Discussions: These findings provide deeper insights into the exit choice behavior of the population and may contribute to the design of safe exits in indoor buildings. In addition, this article emphasizes the importance of context effects and provides a foundation for future research., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Teng, Wang, He, Pan and Mao.)

Identifying how pedestrians make exit choices in an emergency is a critical topic related to safe indoor evacuation. Personal characteristics can influence the exit choice behavior of pedestrians. In particular, the gender factor is often used as an essential variable in indoor safety evacuation studies. However, the role of gender has not been explored in depth. The paper assumes that the following behavior of pedestrians depends on gender. Therefore, three essential factors are identified: the gender factor, crowd flow patterns, and exit width size. For the paper, a virtual experiment was conducted with 196 participants, and they had to decide whether to follow the crowd or not in the presence of capturing these different factors. The findings show that pedestrians prefer the same gender following, i.e., men are more likely to follow men to make exit choices, and women are more likely to follow women to make exit choices. We refer to this change in exit choice behavior depending on the influence of gender as the 'gender effect.' Furthermore, it was found that pedestrians have an innate preference to avoid the majority exit. However, when the width of the exit increases, pedestrians tend to choose the more comprehensive exit. But when the flow of people at larger exits increases, pedestrians choose to avoid the broader exits and choose smaller exits with fewer people, and the effect of the gender effect between pedestrians is diminished. These findings provide greater insight into pedestrian exit choice behavior and may be helpful for pedestrian evacuation management. In addition, they highlight the importance of gender effects and provide a basis for future research. • The study found that pedestrians have the same gender-following preference when faced with exit choices. • It was found that pedestrians have an innate preference to avoid busier exits. When crowd flow was not evenly distributed, participants preferred to choose exits with fewer people. • Participants were more likely to choose a wide exit when the exit width increased. However, when the wide exit had increased crowd flow and the narrow exit had less crowd flow, participants would choose the exit with less crowd flow to escape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we firstly build up an exit choice model to describe the pedestrians’ exit choice behavior in a specific place, i.e., university canteens. The pedestrians are assumed to minimize their evacuation time in choosing exits by explicitly considering the estimated evacuation time and effects of pedestrians’ destinations. In addition, the behavior of food tray return is also captured in the proposed route choice model for pedestrians. Fusing the exit choice model and the route choice model into a cellular automata (CA)-based pedestrian simulation model, we simulate the pedestrian evacuation process in university canteen and the results illustrate the effectiveness of the modeling framework in terms of describing the evacuation process in university canteens. Specifically, destination is identified as a key influence factor for pedestrian evacuation, and pedestrians tend to select the exit that is closer to their destinations. If it is required to return the food tray to designated spots before leaving the canteen, the evacuation efficiency is significantly reduced. The simulation result can also assist in determining the optimal number of tray-return spots if maximum evacuation efficient is to be achieved. In presence of the specific parameter settings and canteen layout in the case study example, it is recommended to deploy four tray-return spots in the university canteen.

Past studies suggest that people are often reluctant to use occupant evacuation elevators in case of fire. However, existing research is scarce and current knowledge is based on questionnaire studies and laboratory experiments. An unannounced evacuation experiment was therefore performed on the 16th floor of a 35-floor high-rise hotel building. Sixty-seven participants took part and eye-tracking glasses were used to collect data on exit choice and eye fixations. Three different scenarios were studied, including two different hotel room locations on the floor and a variation of guidance system for one of these locations, i.e., flashing green lights next to the evacuation sign at the elevators. Results suggest that people typically choose the elevator for evacuation, even if their hotel room was located closer to the evacuation stair. Flashing green lights next to an evacuation sign made people look more at this sign. However, in spite of looking more at the sign, the flashing light was not shown to significantly improve compliance with the sign. Also, the results suggest that a detector activated self-closing fire door without vision panels to the elevator lobby made it more difficult to find the evacuation elevators in an emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Study passenger evacuation behavior using online surveys and hybrid choice models. • Four models examine attributes, latent factors, interactions, and time perception. • Fear of flying, safety knowledge, and risk perception shape evacuation decisions. • Interactions illuminate emergency response intentions in scenarios. • Time perception attribute enhances models and informs accident research. In transport accident rescue operations, the primary focus is on saving lives. However, people's behavior and choices in such dangerous situations are unforeseeable. This paper employs a hybrid choice model to investigate how unobservable human heterogeneity impacts passengers' decisions in airplane emergency evacuations. Three primary latent factors – fear of flying, knowledge of air safety, and no perception of risk – were identified based on indicators from fifteen statements. Subsequently, the hybrid choice model was expanded to include a time perception variable and interaction effects. The findings revealed that compared to Chinese respondents, individuals from the USA exhibit lower fear of flying, more air safety knowledge, and a higher risk perception in flying. All else being equal, aviation professionals can accept longer distances to exits than other passengers, and individuals with higher fear of flying choose middle exits more frequently. In contrast, those with lower risk perception prefer exits at either end of the cabin. Interaction terms indicated that increased air safety knowledge and lower risk perception contribute to a greater acceptance of more distant exits. A lack of risk perception makes traveling alone a significant factor in choosing an exit other than the frontmost, and people tended to avoid following others in densely populated evacuation flows. Regarding time perception, participants perceived the frontmost exit as the quickest, followed by the backmost exit, while the middle exits were viewed as the slowest. This study provides valuable insights for exit choice behavior modeling and airplane evacuation enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Familiarity is widely accepted as a key variable for the exit route selection of occupants of a building in emergency egress, but how to evaluate it has not been well researched. In addition, familiarity with general space layout (building familiarity) and familiarity with exits (exit familiarity) are often interchangeably used, which may cause inappropriate understanding of building and occupant characteristics among fire engineers and architects. In the current study, a paper-based survey was conducted to examine the difference between the two familiarities in a six-story library building. The two familiarities were implicitly evaluated by the spatial knowledge of the participants on the locations of restrooms, elevators, stairways for exit purposes in an emergency, and their current location. Sixty-nine valid responses of the participants' spatial knowledge were semi-quantitatively evaluated based upon the accuracy of the answered position against the actual position. The results reveal that the two familiarities are not synonymous and needs to be understood and handled differently in fire engineering. In particular, the location of emergency-only exit stairways was perceived as low as 20% of non-emergency-only stairways; on average, each of the former and latter stairways was perceived by 8 and 33 participants out of 69 participants, respectively. This result raises concerns about the efficacy of the emergency-only-exit concept. The direction of the next destination out of a building was found to be a key factor to determine the travel route within a building where occupants have good familiarity with the building and surrounding places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of the workshop "New approaches to evacuation modelling", which took place on the 11th of June 2017 in Lund (Sweden) within the Symposium of the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). The workshop gathered international experts in the field of fire evacuation modelling from 19 different countries and was designed to build a dialogue between the fire evacuation modelling world and experts in areas outside of fire safety engineering. The contribution to fire evacuation modelling of five topics within research disciplines outside fire safety engineering (FSE) have been discussed during the workshop, namely 1) Psychology/Human Factors, 2) Sociology, 3) Applied Mathematics, 4) Transportation, 5) Dynamic Simulation and Biomechanics. The benefits of exchanging information between these two groups are highlighted here in light of the topic areas discussed and the feedback received by the evacuation modelling community during the workshop. This included the feasibility of development/application of modelling methods based on fields other than FSE as well as a discussion on their implementation strengths and limitations. Each subject area is here briefly presented and its links to fire evacuation modelling are discussed. The feedback received during the workshop is discussed through a set of insights which might be useful for the future developments of evacuation models for fire safety engineering. • Findings of a workshop on new approaches to evacuation modelling are presented. • Five areas useful for evacuation modelling development are introduced. • Feedback on the modelling ideas is reported. • A roadmap for implementation of new approaches is drafted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting evacuation patterns is useful in emergency management situations such as an earthquake. To find out how pre-trained individuals interact with one another to achieve their own goal to reach the exit as fast as possible firstly, we investigated urban people’s evacuation behavior under earthquake disaster coditions, established crowd response rules in emergencies, and described the drill strategy and exit familiarity quantitatively through a cellular automata model. By setting different exit familiarity ratios, simulation experiments under different strategies were conducted to predict people’s reactions before an emergency. The corresponding simulation results indicated that the evacuees’ training level could affect a multi-exit zone’s evacuation pattern and clearance time. Their exit choice preferences may disrupt the exit options’ balance, leading to congestion in some of the exits. Secondly, due to people’s rejection of long distances, congestion, and unfamiliar exits, some people would hesitant about the evacuation direction during the evacuation process. This hesitation would also significantly reduce the overall evacuation efficiency. Finally, taking a community in Zhuhai City, China, as an example, put forward the best urban evacuation drill strategy. The quantitative relation between exit familiar level and evacuation efficiency was obtained. The final results showed that the optimized evacuation plan could improve evacuation’s overall efficiency through the self-organization effect. These studies may have some impact on predicting crowd behavior during evacuation and designing the evacuation plan.

Demographic trends and advances in accessibility have led to more heterogeneous populations in public buildings. While providing accessible evacuation, it may be necessary to direct evacuees to different evacuation paths depending on functional capacity. The presence of people with mobility limitations (e.g., wheelchair users) may affect the evacuation of others, possibly influencing the decision making of neighbouring evacuees. This study investigates how exit choice of people is influenced by the functional capacity of other evacuees and the design of the exit. Virtual Reality was used to design a discrete choice experiment in which participants were exposed to multiple choice situations and a mixed logit model was fitted to the data. Results from 40 participants indicate that exit choice was positively influenced by other people choosing the exit, and a larger effect was found when the other person was a wheelchair user. The design of the exit also influenced the exit choice of the participants. Large inter-person differences existed. Strategies reported by the participants in the subsequent questionnaire included altruistic behaviour. These results can inform fire safety engineers when outlining evacuation strategies and evacuation model users in their assumptions concerning exit choice in building evacuation. • An exit choice experiment based on discrete choice was conducted. • Participants tended to follow the wheelchair user more often than non-wheelchair. • Following the wheelchair user was an active choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A social force model is developed in this paper to study the crowd evacuation when a terrorist attack occurs in the public place. The persons in the model are divided into two groups—terrorists and pedestrians. On one hand, each terrorist chooses the nearest pedestrian as the target. Once the distance between him and his target is small enough, the terrorist will launch attacks on his target and the target will be killed with a certain probability. On the other hand, each pedestrian tries to avoid the terrorists and reach the exits. An emergency exit choice strategy which emphasizes the security risk factor is developed for pedestrians. The main simulation results are summarized as follows. First, the number of deaths in the terrorist attack increases with the number of terrorists and with the density of pedestrians. If the number of exits decreases, the death toll will become more sensitive to the change of the density of pedestrians. Second, adding the number of exits can significantly reduce casualties. Third, more pedestrians will be killed and the evacuation speed will be reduced if terrorists start the attack from the positions of the exits. Fourth, the emergency exit choice strategy has an advantage over the ordinary exit choice strategy in daily life for reducing casualties. The more unbalanced the terrorists’ initial distribution around the exits is, the more noticeable this advantage will be. Fifth, the number of deaths will decrease obviously if at least half of the exits are available and safe. Our study is valuable for developing an effective evacuation scheme to reduce casualties in a terrorist attack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large infrastructure projects often involve important decision about evacuation safety measures, e.g., emergency exit portals, alarm systems, etc, that need to be taken in spite of limited information and knowledge about the topic. This has been shown to sometimes lead to design mistakes, but these mistakes can potentially be avoided if research is linked to the project at an early stage. This paper discusses how research can be connected to large infrastructure tunnel projects, and illustrates the process using the Stockholm Bypass Project as an example. In addition, the results of a research project, which was linked to the Stockholm Bypass Project, are presented and relevant additional publications are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to increase the knowledge on human behaviour in smoke, an evacuation experiment was performed in a road tunnel in Stockholm in July 2014. Sixty-six participants, who were instructed to individually evacuate the tunnel, took part. Participants' walking speeds were measured in a smoke-filled section, as well as in a smoke-free section, of the tunnel. The walking speeds in non-irritant smoke were measured for extinction coefficients in the range of 0.5–1.1 m -1 , which corresponds to approximately 2–4 m of visibility (for light reflecting signs). In addition, way-finding and exit choice in smoke were also investigated. Particularly, different emergency exit portal designs were evaluated in the smoke-filled section of the tunnel. The novel data-set on walking speed in smoke is presented, including coupled data on obstructed (movement in smoke) and unobstructed (smoke-free movement) walking speed. Results show that there is a weak relationship between an individual's ability to walk in smoke and the unobstructed walking speed, but more research is needed in this area. In addition, the results relating to way-finding and exit choice demonstrated that the emergency exit portal design in the experiments was appropriate for the intended use. However, in order to increase the performance of the design, the portal may be complemented with information signs on the wall opposite to the exit, namely way-finding signs including distances to the closest emergency exits on both tunnel walls, and a loudspeaker installation that can inform evacuees about the location of available exits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Shanghai University / Shanghai Daxue Xuebao is the property of Journal of Shanghai University (Natural Sciences) Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Understanding how people choose exits during the emergency evacuation of an airplane is fundamental to saving more lives after air accidents. Since exit choice is difficult to observe in an emergency directly, this paper utilizes a stated preference experiment to evaluate people's exit decisions in an airplane emergency evacuation. Responses were collected through online questionnaires conducted in China and the USA. Then, conditional and nested logistic models were applied, indicating significant effects from physical factors, social influences, and individual characteristics on exit choice in virtual airplane evacuations. First, a low-level emergency and traveling alone allow people to make broader exit choices. Then, people with professional aviation experience appear less likely to choose the backmost option than common air passengers, and a high BMI index positively impacts the selection of the backmost exit. Next, herding behavior was not dominant in the airplane emergency evacuation experiment, but people were found to avoid following others in rational decisions which were made in an unreal emergency. In addition, the strong impact of a family member's location on people's direction of movement was indicated in the results. Finally, the frontmost exit and movement towards the front of the aircraft were preferred in a crisis and when people travel with family. This study provides evidence of passenger exit choice behavior in airplane emergency evacuation and suggests that the seating position of family members should be taken into account to support more efficient and safer airplane evacuations. • A stated preference experiment was used to evaluate people's emergency decisions. • People avoid herding in rational decisions which were made in an unreal emergency. • Frontmost exits and forward direction were preferred in crisis and with family. • A family member's position greatly impacts people's movement direction. • High BMI and none aviation professionals positively impact the back exit choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exit choice is critical to saving lives during a building evacuation. Numerous studies have examined how environmental factors, social interactions, and individuals' internal factors affect exit choice behavior. However, due to their limited ability to perceive and combine these multi-attributes, people do not always make strategic and rational decisions but instead rely on preferences. The choice context can facilitate or hinder the evaluation of attributes, and thus preference reversals may occur in the same choice set but in different contexts. Researchers have long known that the context effect – i.e. preference reversals depending on the availability of other options – plays an important role in decision-making behavior. However, no research on decision-making behavior has been conducted that considers the context effect on exit choice during building evacuation. To fill this gap, we conducted a series of virtual reality (VR) experiments to examine the influence of context effect on exit choice. Before conducting the experiments, the validity of exit choice behavior in the VR-based method was analysed by comparing controlled experiments in both the real world and virtual environment. The results from our VR experiments provide novel and clear empirical evidence that contextual preference reversals involving three major effects, the compromise effect , the similarity effect , and the attraction effect , play an important role in exit choice during evacuation. Additionally, we compared three models for estimating discrete choice – expected utility theory (EUT), cumulative prospect theory (CPT), and accentuation of differences (AOD) – which primarily focus on the option attributes, the risk attitude of decision-makers, and the context of options, respectively. The outstanding performance of AOD, which is based on a psychophysical law and takes into account the impact of the context of options, highlights the psychological perspective of evacuees towards various option attributes and the importance of context effects in exit choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The choice of the exit to egress from a facility plays a fundamental role in pedestrian modelling and simulation. Yet, empirical evidence for backing up simulation is scarce. In this contribution, we present three new groups of experiments that we conducted in different geometries. We varied parameters such as the width of the doors, the initial location and number of pedestrians which in turn affected their perception of the environment. We extracted and analysed relevant indicators such as distance to the exits and density levels. The results put in evidence the fact that pedestrians use time-dependent information to optimize their exit choice, and that, in congested states, a load balancing over the exits occurs. We propose a minimal modelling approach that covers those situations, especially the cases where the geometry does not show a symmetrical configuration. Most of the models try to achieve the load balancing by simulating the system and solving optimization problems. We show statistically and by simulation that a linear model based on the distance to the exits and the density levels around the exit can be an efficient dynamical alternative.

Considering the process of pedestrian evacuation as pedestrian walking freely from current position to exit and queuing at the exit, estimated evacuation time model for single pedestrian is established. Based on estimated evacuation time and shortest distance, pedestrian exit choice model is established considering pedestrian preference. Pedestrian exit choice model is added into pedestrian simulation model which is built based on cellular automata. Pedestrian evacuation behavior in multi-exits case is simulated. The simulations indicate that pedestrian evacuation model built in our work describes the pedestrian evacuation behavior well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying how pedestrians respond to the movement of others in emergencies is an essential topic that is directly relevant to building evacuation and safety management. Here, we hypothesise that pedestrian following behaviour depends on the context. We identify three essential contextual factors: spatial information, the size of crowds and the distribution of individuals across exits. We conduct a virtual experiment with over 500 participants who have to decide whether to follow a crowd in scenarios capturing these different contextual factors. Our findings suggest pedestrians have an innate preference to avoid the exit chosen by a majority of people but also that they prefer exits that are associated with shorter escape routes, even if these exits are used by more people. However, if one exit is not used at all, these preferences are altered and pedestrians prefer following others regardless of exit properties. In contrast to the relative usage of exits, the overall size of the crowd does not affect pedestrian exit choice in our experiment except for the case when all pedestrians choose the same exit. We call the change in exit choice behaviour depending on how pedestrians are distributed across exits "split effect". Simulation results show how the split effect can lead to unbalanced route usage and reduce the efficiency of pedestrian flow in certain circumstances, such as when the arrival rate of pedestrians is low. Our work adds to a growing body on pedestrian exit choice and highlights the importance of precise control of contextual factors in research. • An experiment on how pedestrians' responses to others' movement depends on the context. • In our experiment pedestrians have an innate tendency to avoid crowds. • When spatial information is available, it influences pedestrian route choice more than the crowd. • Pedestrians avoid an absolutely empty exit even if it otherwise has desirable properties. • This may lead to unbalanced route usage and reduce the efficiency of pedestrian flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates pedestrian crowd tactical-level decision making during emergency evacuations. Of particular interest is crowd exit-choice behaviour. Two sources of stated choice data are collected and combined. One data set is derived from an experiment linked to a real-life exit choice experience of participants (in a non-evacuation setting). We examine aspects that have often been taken for granted in the literature in connection with egress behaviour of crowds during emergencies. We quantify evacuees' trade-off between 'distance', 'density', 'exit visibility' and 'directional density' as well as the interactive effect between exit visibility and tendency to follow others. A comprehensive random-utility analysis is conducted ranging from traditionally practiced models to the state-of-the-practice methods such as random-coefficient nested logit. Our findings suggest that (i) unless evacuees face certain levels of uncertainty in the escape environment; flows of crowd are unlikely to be followed. Otherwise, most evacuees perceive other individuals as potential sources of congestion and extra delay (generalisation to situations where crowd is completely unfamiliar with the egress geometry, however, may require careful scrutiny). (ii) Evacuees mostly prefer visible exits over the exits whose congestion level is unknown to them (i.e. the tendency to minimise ambiguity). (iii) The presence of attribute uncertainty (e.g. exit visibility) significantly changes the impact of observing decisions of others on each individual choice maker. We also found out that (iv) spatial distribution of exits has a significant influence on evacuees' decisions (presenting itself in the form of violating the IIA assumption). (v) The marginal weights that different individuals place upon attributes of exits are significantly heterogeneous. (vi) There is meaningful correlation between certain utility weights of individual evacuees. These behavioural findings can provide significant behavioural insight essential for safe evacuation planning and accurate forecast of evacuees' behaviour. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge on human behaviour in emergency is crucial to increase the safety of buildings and transportation systems. Decision making during evacuations implies different choices, of which one of the most important concerns is the escape route. The choice of a route may involve local decisions on alternative exits from an enclosed environment. This study investigates the effect of environmental (presence of smoke, emergency lighting and distance of exit) and social factors (interaction with evacuees close to the exits and with those near the decision-maker) on local exit choice. This goal is pursued using an online stated preference survey carried out making use of non-immersive virtual reality. A sample of 1503 participants is obtained and a mixed logit model is calibrated using these data. The model shows that the presence of smoke, emergency lighting, distance of exit, number of evacuees near the exits and the decision-maker and flow of evacuees through the exits significantly affect local exit choice. Moreover, the model indicates that decision making is affected by a high degree of behavioural uncertainty. Our findings support the improvement of evacuation models and the accuracy of their results, which can assist in designing and managing building and transportation systems. The main aim of this study is to enrich the understanding of how local exit choices are made and how behavioural uncertainty affects these choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Including in total 135 participants in the ages 19-69 years (recruited from the general public), an unannounced full-scale field evacuation experiment was performed in the Stockholm underground metro system on the night between October 17 and 18, 2014. The purpose was to collect data on the flow rate of people in train exits during the evacuation of a train in a tunnel and on the walking speed of people when moving long distances on an uneven surface in a tunnel, and to study exit choice and behaviour during an evacuation. Consequently, the experiment involved the evacuation of a rail car (a Bombardier C20 train) in a tunnel as well as the subsequent evacuation of the tunnel itself; the latter meant that the participants either could evacuate to the closest station (~400 m) or to an available emergency exit (~200 m). Among other things, the experiment demonstrated that the averaged flow rates of people in the train exits varied between 0.19 p/s and 0.22 p/s (0.14-0.16 p/m s when considering the train exit width of 1.4 m) and that the averaged walking speeds in the tunnel varied between 1.1 m/s and 1.2 m/s (no smoke present). Furthermore, all 135 participants found and used the available emergency exit, which had been equipped with a technical system consisting of a loudspeaker that broadcasted a combined alarm signal and a pre-recorded voice message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We experimentally study the effect of symmetrical exit layout on luggage-laden pedestrian movement. • With the increasing ratio of luggage, the shape of the density distribution in front of the bottleneck changes from a circle to a long strip in the double-exit room. • The crowd has a greater speed when luggage-laden pedestrians leave the crowd on the right side than on the left, but it does not help enhance the flow rate. Understanding the movement mechanism of luggage-laden pedestrians in traffic hubs helps to reduce the congestion caused by the luggage. The pedestrian movement with three luggage ratios (10%, 30%, 50%) is conducted experimentally in the double-exit room. The seven symmetrical exit layouts are analyzed. The main findings are: (i) With the increasing luggage ratio, the density distribution map in front of the bottleneck changes from a circle to a long strip in the double-exit room. (ii) Right preferences of exit choice are observed in non-luggage pedestrians but not in luggage-laden pedestrians. (iii) The crowd has a greater speed when luggage-laden pedestrians leave the crowd on the right side than on the left, but it does not help enhance the flow rate. The results showed that the symmetrical exit layout does influence the movement efficiency of luggage-laden pedestrians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding human decision making during emergency evacuations is important. It is because decision making is crucial at each stage of the evacuation (e.g. route choice, exit choice, path finding, etc.). Previous studies have examined the influence of social interaction and environmental factors on exit choice. However, researches on the decision-making behaviour and risk attitude towards such selection at the individual level is still limited. To fill this knowledge gap, we designed a series of virtual evacuation scenarios to examine the exit choice behaviour and decision-making attitude in uncertainty risk scenarios in different smoke conditions. Data collection was implemented by an online stated preference survey. The results revealed a systematic and pattern preference in exit choice regardless of the decisions made by experienced evacuees. The weighted uncertainty risk for individuals was determined by considering the smoke height and smoke appearance frequency. The weighting function between the subjective and objective entities exhibited an S shape. In addition, the function was estimated using an empirical equation. A decision maker's attitude towards uncertain risk in evacuation scenarios was observed to be a rank- and reference-dependent preference rather than being fully rational. The results of the experiments conducted in virtual environment well agreed with the cumulative prospect theory. This research demonstrates the feasibility of using virtual environment for evacuation experiment which can total avoid the risk of stampede while the individual decision-making behaviours can still be captured. • A series of virtual evacuation scenarios were designed and conducted to examine the exit choice behaviour and decision-making attitude of the participants under uncertain risk. • The study revealed a systematic and pattern preference in exit choice regardless of the decisions made by experienced evacuees. • The weighting function between the subjective and objective entities exhibited an S shape, and the function was estimated by an empirical equation. • A decision maker's attitude towards uncertainty risk in pedestrian evacuation was observed to be a rank- and reference-dependent preference rather than being fully rational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the event of a fire emergency in the built environment, occupants face a range of evacuation decisions, including the choice of exits. An important question from the standpoint of evacuation safety is how evacuees make these choices and what factors affect their choices. Understanding how humans weigh these (often) competing factors is essential knowledge for evacuation planning and safe design. Here, we use immersive Virtual Reality (VR) experiments to investigate, in controlled settings, how these decision trade-offs are made using empirical data and econometric choice models. In each VR scenario, participants are confronted with choices between trade-offs between choosing exits that are familiar to them, exits that are less occupied, exits that are nearer to them and exits to which visibility is less affected by fire smoke. The marginal role of these competing factors on their decisions is quantified in a discrete choice model. Post-experiment questionnaires also determine factors such as participants' their perceived realism and emotion evoked by the VR evacuation experience. Results indicate that none of the investigated factors dominated the others in terms of their influence on exit choices. The participants exhibited patterns of multi-attribute conjoint decision-making, consistent with the recent findings in the literature. While lack of familiarity and the presence of smoke both negatively affected the desirability of an exit to evacuees, neither solely determined exit choice. It was also observed that prioritisation of the said factors by participants changed during the repeated scenarios, when compared to the first scenario that they experienced. Results have implications for both fire safety designs and future VR evacuation experiment designs. These empirical models can also be employed as input into computer simulations of building evacuation. • VR experiments and discrete choice models were used to investigate how people select exit in build-environment disasters • The results show that the decision is affected by multiple factors such as social influence, exit distance, smoke presentence and familiarity. • The results show that the participants used different strategies and that these strategies changed during the experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A social force model-based exit choice with pedestrian classification was proposed. • Simulations in the multiple exit evacuation scenarios were performed. • The standard deviation of pedestrian density in multiple exits reflects evacuation time. • The luggage-laden pedestrian has the most significant impact on the evacuation time. • A small number of wavering pedestrians improved the utilization efficiency of exits. As important urban transportation hubs, the subway stations with a massive flow of people require more evacuation exits. This study combined the exit choice model and the social force model with pedestrian classification. Three influencing factors were discussed in calculating the utility value: pedestrian density, distance from pedestrian to exits, and exit width. The effects of distance and density weight coefficient in the exit choice model on evacuation time are explored. The results show that with an increase in the density weight coefficient of the luggage-laden pedestrian, the evacuation time initially decreases and then increases. The evacuation time was shortened as the pedestrian density's standard deviation at exits decreased, and the evacuation time was extended otherwise. Evacuation time was compared based on different proportions of the pedestrian categories. The results show that the number of luggage-laden pedestrians is the main factor that leads to an increase in evacuation time. Scenarios with different exit widths are discussed. The evacuation time decreases with an increase in exit width, and the evacuation time tends to be stable when all exits have a width of 2.5 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research of crowd evacuation plays the predominant role of guaranteeing the controllability of the stampede disaster and decreasing accidents casualties. Herd behavior is one of the characteristic crowd evacuation behaviors, which has the definite influence on evacuees' decision-making and evacuation efficiency. In this paper, the crowd evacuation observation experiments were conducted to investigate herd behavior by considered 16 working conditions, including change the number of participants, alter urgency levels and set barrier. The participant allotment and crowd movement time on different sides and exits are obtained. The judgment area and crowd density are proposed to understand the herd behavior and choices of decision maker. The critical states of herd behavior in direction and exit choices are confirmed according to the video observation and data analysis. The results indicate that herd behavior moderately leads to the different distribution and movement time of the experimental crowd. Decision maker does not present herd behavior when crowd density is relatively high or low. When crowd density in direction choice judgment area is within the range of [1/12, 1/6] (person/m2), and the crowd density in exit choice judgment area is within the range of [1/27, 2/27] (person/m2), decision maker basically triggers herd behavior. This study provides insight into the critical state of herd behavior which deepens the understanding of crowd evacuation and contributes to the reference of the crowd accident management. • Investigating herd behavior by conducting the crowd evacuation experiments. • Putting forward the critical state of the crowd herd behavior in decision-making. • Determining judgment area and crowd density to estimate herding choice. • Implementing participant allotment and movement time of experimental participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: How do evacuees choose egress route and final exit during an emergency evacuation? This is an essential question within which human factors should be taken into account. Human factors, including personality, age and gender, play an important role during an emergency evacuation. Especially, personality trait varies among individuals. This paper focuses on the potential relationship between the occupants’ choice of egress route and final exit and their personality traits (mainly about conscientiousness). We carried out 8 evacuation trials in a school building using a group of students. A survey was conducted to qualitatively analyse the students’ evacuation behavior. A simplified Chinese version of NEO-FFI (Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Five-Factor Inventory) was also used to assess the students’ personality. The results show that: the participants’ choice of classroom exit is unbiased; Conscientiousness influences the way in which students decide their choice of classroom exit. Highly conscientiousness people are more rational when making a decision. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: An evacuation experiment including 100 individuals was performed inside a tunnel in order to study the effectiveness of different way-finding installations and to collect data on movement speeds and human behaviour. The participants took part in the experiment individually, and no group interactions were studied. The experiment tunnel was 200m long and an emergency exit was located 180m into the tunnel. In addition, emergency signs including distances to nearest exits were located every eight meters on both sides of the tunnel. The tunnel was filled with artificial smoke and acetic acid, which produced a mean light extinction coefficient of 2.2m−1. Participants had been told that they would participate in an evacuation experiment, but they had not been informed about the layout of the tunnel or the technical installations. The average movement speed was found to be approximately 0.9m/s, independent of tunnel floor material examined. The experiment also demonstrated the importance of the emergency exit design. A loudspeaker, which provided people with an alarm signal and a pre-recorded voice message, was found to perform particular well in terms of attracting people to the exit, independent of which side of the tunnel the participants were following. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This research focuses on exit choices within SMEs. In this study, 'exit choice' refers to the decision to opt for either liquidation or sale of the firm. The predictions focus on human-capital and firm-resource variables. The hypotheses are tested on a set of 158 owners of small firms, the majority of which are micro-firms with 0-9 employees. The results of a series of binominal logistic regression analyses show that firm-resource characteristics (previous sales turnover, the firm's independence from its owner, and firm size), together with one aspect of the owner's specific human capital (the owner's acquisition experience), predict exit choice. The conclusions have been made with caution, as the dataset is relatively small and the number of predictors is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]