Citation

Gaire N, Song Z, Christensen KM, Sharifi MS, Chen A. Transp. Res. Rec. 2018; 2672(1): 22-29.

Affiliation

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Utah State University, Logan, UT 2Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, Utah State University, Logan, UT 3Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China Corresponding Author: Address correspondence to Ziqi Song: ziqi.song@usu.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0361198118756875

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Pedestrian evacuation studies are critical in obtaining information about evacuation scenarios and in preparing to face the challenges of actual evacuations. Studies have examined evacuation policies, exit choice modeling, and evacuation curve analysis. Some studies have addressed the evacuation behavior of individuals with disabilities (IWDs), although this important aspect of evacuation seems to be missing from modeling of the exit choice in many studies. In modeling of the exit choice for evacuation, many studies have been found to be based on the stated preference survey method, where evacuees are asked to choose an exit based on descriptions, without an actual experiment taking place. This study focuses on the discrete choice model of the exit choice in the room for both IWDs and individuals without disabilities (IWODs). The results demonstrate that the presence of IWDs in the group plays a crucial role in the exit choice for all evacuees. The results demonstrate that there are significant differences in exit choice between IWDs and IWODs. Current evacuation policies have been found to be more focused on visual signs, while this study demonstrates that these visual signs are of little importance to individuals with visual disabilities.

Language: en