Pedestrian Decision-Making Behavior During Stair Evacuation: An Experiment Study on Stair Lane-Selection Preferences

Improving the efficiency of stair evacuation plays a crucial role in emergency management, which may be shaped by pedestrians’ lane-selection behavior. However, most existing studies describe pedestrians’ lane-selection preferences during stair evacuation, while the mechanisms behind these preferences are not yet well understood. To solve this issue, a stair evacuation observation experiment and a questionnaire survey were carried out to investigate pedestrian stair lane-selection preferences. Based on 1793 pieces of experimental data and 397 questionnaires, it is found that (1) pedestrians in the middle lane are more inclined to proactively change lanes based on their personal preference when sufficient space is available. (2) The primary factors influencing pedestrians’ lane-selection preferences are perceived safety, shortest path, and behavioral habit. (3) As the distance to the wall increases, the preference for the wall-side lane gradually decreases. Notably, the rate of decline accelerates at first, then slows down as the wall becomes farther away. This study deeply deconstructs pedestrians’ stair lane-selection preferences which helps understand the interactions among pedestrians, between pedestrians and their surroundings. It offers a basis for the optimization of evacuation strategies, the design of emergency evacuation plans, and the calibration of evacuation simulation models.