The Impact of Guidance Information on Exit Choice Behavior During an Evacuation

Abstract

This paper presents a Virtual Reality (VR) experiment to study pedestrian exit choice behavior during evacuations. It investigates whether and to what extent different types of guidance information (i.e. exit signs and directional signs) influence pedestrian exit choice during an evacuation (drill). The analysis focuses on the commonalities and differences in the pedestrians’ exit choice behavior between the scenario without any additional guidance information and two scenarios with different types of guidance information. The findings suggest that guidance information of exit signs and direction signs have significant influences on the number of recognized exits. Meanwhile, guidance information might have a relevant effect on final exit choice of participants.