Investigating the influence of route turning angle on compliance behaviors and evacuation performance in a virtual-reality-based experiment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2021.101259Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Performed VR-based evacuation experiments with different route turning angles.

  • Route turning angle negatively affects participants’ compliance for emergency signs.

  • Route turning angle affects the difficulty of the participants’ perception of exit.

  • Route turning angle influences evacuation speed, pause, and speed deviation.

Abstract

Route turning is one of the most essential and ubiquitous physical features in the complex building environment. Under the influence of route turning, evacuees’ approaching perspective to an emergency sign could vary, affecting their information perception and behavioral compliance during the evacuation. Although conventional simulation methods assess the effectiveness of the emergency sign in the visible region, they fail to consider evacuees’ wayfinding behaviors and interaction with the emergency sign. It remains unclear whether the route turning angle affects evacuees’ compliance for detecting and responding to the emergency sign. To investigate such an influence, a virtual-reality-based method for assessing human evacuation behaviors in building fire evacuations was proposed. In this study, two evacuation routes with different turning angles in a shopping mall were created and implemented in a virtual-reality environment, and 67 subjects participated in the immersive virtual-reality-based experiment. All participants took the two routes to find the nearest exit for evacuation in a fire event, aiming to evaluate the effect of the route turning angle on the evacuation process. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire at the end of the experiment. Next, statistical analyses were conducted on evacuation results, information perception, and evacuation performance of the participants. The results indicated the route turning angle significantly affected participants' behavioral compliance with emergency signs. The results also suggested the route turning angle was influential on participants’ information perception and evacuation performance. Besides, a significant effect on rotation change, wayfinding pause, and speed deviation were observed. This study validates the effectiveness of investigating evacuees’ interaction with emergency signs using virtual-reality technology and has potential implications for complex building path planning and evacuation simulation modeling.

Introduction

Emergency signs have been widely used in the built environment and assist people in evacuation navigation. Prior experience with emergency signs is a critical component to convey the directional information about escape routes and emergency exit locations [1], [2]. The implementation of an emergency sign is associated with the evacuees' compliance, as individuals may fail to respond to the design intention of the emergency sign during the evacuation. For instance, a statistics report indicated that 92% of evacuees did not follow the emergency sign intentions during evacuations in buildings from 400 evacuation cases in the 1990s [3]. Xie [4] reported that only 38% of evacuees are likely to perceive the emergency sign in an unfamiliar building environment experiment. A knowledge gap exists regarding the effectiveness of an emergency sign influenced by noncompliant evacuees, and the underlying reasons that lead to noncompliance behaviors remain poorly understood.

Among the factors affecting the effectiveness of an emergency sign, evacuees’ awareness of the emergency signs is a critical one. Previous research have evaluated the effectiveness of emergency signs mainly on the physical factors of visibility, including graphics [2], colors [5], flashing lights [6], lighting conditions [7], and smoke conditions [8],to ensure that emergency signs can be effectively detected. In previous studies, visibility has been recognized as the maximum observation distance between observer and a sign. Despite these studies, the implicit assumption is that evacuees have prior knowledge of the location of the sign, which can be effectively detected only if evacuees move toward the sign within the visible region. However, other studies have reported that evacuees might not follow emergency sign instructions even if the signs are clearly visible [9], [10]. As a result, the ability to assess the effectiveness of emergency signs by current simulation methods is limited, as it lacks the insight of the evacuees’ wayfinding perspectives and interactions in perceiving and detecting the emergency sign during the evacuation.

In reality, the shortest evacuation routes in a complex building (e.g., large shopping malls) usually contain frequent changes with various turning angles based on shortest-path planning [11], [12]. In a route turning junction, evacuees may approach an emergency sign from a multitude of angles with limited perspectives due to the route direction deviation, as shown in Fig. 1. Although the emergency signs act as a supplementary component to provide exit direction information, evacuees may fail to detect it in their current perspective even if they are within the visible region. However, the potential effect of the route turning angle on the evacuation process has been rarely explored. It remains unclear whether the route turning angle influences evacuees’ compliance with the emergency signs. Moreover, evacuees’ evacuation performance in decision-making and exit choice may also be affected, leading to more wayfinding pauses and turn-around behaviors during the evacuation. Investigating such influences can contribute to the understanding of the microscopic interaction between the evacuees and the emergency signs, which may explain the potential motivations for compliance behaviors.

To fill this knowledge gap, this paper investigates the effects of the route turning angle on evacuees’ evacuation processes. The authors report on an empirical investigation using small-scale observations comprised of emergency sign recognition and evacuation performance. Toward this end, 67 individuals participated in two evacuation experiments in a shopping mall with two different route turning angles in the immersive virtual environment (IVE). The results validate that route turning angle affects individual evacuation performance and leads to noncompliance with emergency sign systems. The authors provide a detailed behavioral explanation analysis of compliance behaviors, evacuation performance, and reception of emergency sign information in different spatial structures. This finding offers recommendations for assessing evacuation performance under different route conditions and the effectiveness of an emergency sign system from a user perspective.

Section snippets

Emergency sign placement and evaluation

The placement of signs in complex buildings provides evacuees with clear instructions for subsequent environmental information. Active and effective plans for sign placements can be essential in aiding and improving evacuation performance [13]. Conventional research concerns the effectiveness of the sign based on observed visibility. These computational simulation methods evaluate placement effects on the sign occlusion in architectural spaces to improve efficiency and optimize emergency sign

Methods

The IVE of a shopping mall with two symmetrical channels and two identical emergency exits was developed for use in this study. Environment design and experimental procedures for the VR-based study are presented below. Apparatus involved in human interaction and real-time data recording methods are also discussed.

Results

A statistical measurement of each factor and illustrative results for their effects are presented in this section. As illustrated in Fig. 7, the evacuation process was measured by the evacuation result, information perception, and evacuation performance. Participants' compliance behaviors for the emergency sign system were assessed using the exit-choice result. Information perception was evaluated by the number of emergency signs perceived and rotation changes during the evacuation. To further

Discussion

The influence of route turning angle on participants' behavioral compliance, information perception, and evacuation performance are discussed in this section. Implications of using the IVE-based method for evaluating the effectiveness of an emergency sign system are also discussed.

Conclusions

Two groups of controlled evacuation experiments were conducted in a virtual mall environment to investigate the effect of the route turning angle on human compliance behaviors and evacuation performance. Experimental data of evacuation time, speed, and exit choice were collected and analyzed to evaluate the evacuation process objectively. The posttest questionnaire served as supporting evidence to measure the participants' subjective feelings during the evacuation experiment process. To further

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant # 51778553, Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, No. CityU 11214518, and City University of Hong Kong Strategic Research Grant # 7005240. The conclusions herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.

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