Pedestrian exit choice behavior during an evacuation - a comparison study between field and VR experiment

Understanding pedestrian exit choice behavior during emergency situations is important for improving evacuation efficiency. Virtual Reality is a promising technique that can be used to study pedestrian evacuation behavior. However, studies comparing evacuation behavior in real and virtual environments are still scarce. This paper explores Virtual Reality as a novel technique to study pedestrian exit choice behavior during evacuations. Two experimental methods were compared, namely a field experiment in a real building environment and a Virtual Reality experiment that covers the same situation. The comparison focuses on the commonalities and differences in the pedestrians’ exit choice behavior between the field experiment and the VR experiment. The results show that the pedestrians’ exit choice behavior during the evacuation are overall similar in the field experiment and the VR experiment. The promising results show the use of VR can be considered as a research tool for research on exit choice behavior during evacuations.