Does Light Influence Route-Choice Behavior? Discrete-Choice Modeling Study

Crowd management attempts to guide pedestrian crowds effectively and efficiently. Static crowd-management measures, such as fences, are often used to guide the crowd. Another way to steer pedestrian walking behavior is through “nudging,” that is, gently coaxing people into the “preferred” direction, for instance, by lighting conditions. This paper examines the impact of light intensity (brightness) and color on pedestrian route-choice behavior using data from a VR experiment. The study develops two types of discrete-choice models—a panel mixed logit model and a latent class choice model—featuring the route-choice behavior of pedestrians under varying lighting conditions in a virtual maze in a controlled virtual reality experiment. We found that pedestrians avoided red and dark corridors and chose green and blue corridors. On average, the green light most effectively “pulled” people toward a specific route. In addition, this study uncovered three segments in the population: (1) light-sensitive individuals, (2) darkness-avoiding individuals, and (3) individuals with a severe right-handed bias. We found that the impact of color and brightness levels on route-choice behavior differed greatly across segments.