Simulation of tourists' wayfinding during evacuation based on experiments in Kyoto

Koichi Sabashi, Boaz Ben-Moshe, J. D. Schmöcker, Yuval Hadas, Satoshi Nakao

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tourists are often more vulnerable than residents in sudden disaster situations due to lack of knowledge regarding evacuation routes and safe areas. To establish protocols and the schemes for tourist evacuation to safe areas, it is necessary to gather their likely behavior during an evacuation. Since there are few actual data available we conducted a VR (Virtual Reality) experiment assuming a sudden disaster situation and estimated tourists' route choice based on the experiment. In the experiment pictures of intersection in the touristic Higashiyama area of Kyoto, Japan, where shown to participants and they could choose the direction they want to proceed until reaching an open space or designated shelter. As a result, we could quantify the impact of road width and, to some degree, network structure. The results reveal the tendency to select wide roads and to proceed straight. If the participants were put under time pressure these tendencies are intensified. Utilizing these results we constructed an evacuation simulation. We estimated the distribution and amount of tourists using data obtained from a mobile phone service provider. We conducted the simulation using VisWalk with various guidance situations and compared those results. The results illustrate potential capacity bottlenecks of designated shelter locations and the importance to provide route guidance and certain points in the network.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)640-647
Number of pages8
JournalTransportation Research Procedia
Volume62
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2022
Externally publishedYes
Event24th Euro Working Group on Transportation Meeting, EWGT 2021 - Aveiro, Portugal
Duration: 8 Sep 202110 Sep 2021

Keywords

  • Evacuation simulation
  • Tourists' evacuation planning
  • Virtual Reality
  • Wayfinding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Transportation

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