Route choice in pedestrian evacuation: formulated using a potential field

A method for formulating the route choice behavior of pedestrians in evacuation in closed areas with internal obstacles is proposed. The method is implemented in a pedestrian model, in which the route choice is determined by the potential of discrete space. The potential measures the total effect of such factors affecting route choice as route distance, pedestrian congestion and route capacity. Using scenario simulations, the proposed method is compared with several existing methods. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method can simulate two classes of phenomena that cannot be reproduced accurately by those existing methods. In addition, two examples of inefficient evacuation as regards route choice are given. The two examples illustrate that, for improving the efficiency of evacuation, excessive or limited sensitivity of pedestrians to the route capacity may be unhelpful, and adding an extra route may be inefficient.