Study On The Influence Of Wayfinding Clues On Pedestrian Behavior Under Time Pressure In Underground Space

As the primary wayfinding aid in underground space,guidance signage is of vital significance to create safe and efficient underground space and enhance pedestrian experience.Restricted by circumstances such as confined and narrow underground spaces and poor lighting,pedestrians are vulnerable to interference from the environment and social clues that require less cognition,such as light and pedestrians,reduction in wayfinding efficiency.Especially in an emergency,such interference can be amplified,which imperils the lives of pedestrians.However,at present,generally the underground space construction and the design of guidance signage system are independent of each other,the mutual competition among wayfinding clues is rarely incorporated in the consideration,and the evaluation of guidance signage systems are mostly post-project evaluation,resulting in deficiencies in prophase design of guidance signage system and difficulties in implementation of improved design at a later stage,and requiring a great expenditure of labor,material and financial resources.Therefore,from the perspective of pedestrian needs,this paper discusses the connection between pedestrian cognitive behavior and wayfinding clues in the underground space under everyday and emergency scenarios,proposes suggestions for the design of guidance signage system and architectural composition,and explores virtual reality technology for wayfinding cognitive research and the feasibility and practicability of prior verification of guidance signage system.The main work of this paper is as follows.1.First,review domestic and foreign literature to summarize types of wayfinding,and select representative wayfinding clues for research,i.e.guidance signage,lighting intensity and pedestrian influence.Then introduce the most common and primary pressure source of evacuation—time pressure,further study the influence mechanism of time pressure on wayfinding cognition,clue collection and processing behavior,and select virtual reality technology as research method.Collate domestic and foreign literature of current virtual reality research,investigate exiting problems of current feasibility research on wayfinding in virtual environment,and design feasible scheme of virtual reality technology for wayfinding research.2.Study the feasibility of virtual reality technology for wayfinding research and prior verification of guidance signage system.Select real underground space scenes in filed investigation,use virtual reality technology to construct simulation scenarios,set different types of multi-stage wayfinding tasks,and compare performance,physical behavior and cognitive processes of tested wayfinding tasks in both real and virtual environments by using think-aloud protocol and behavior analysis.The experimental results show that the performance of tested wayfinding task,physical behavior of path selection,wayfinding strategies,and preference and types of clues are similar in both virtual and realistic scenarios,indicating a high feasibility of virtual reality technology for wayfinding research and prior verification of guidance signage system.3.Study relative influence of implicit information(corridor luminance),guidance signage,and social factors on path selection by participants under two contextual variables(everyday and emergency).Use virtual reality technology to construct 20 path selection scenarios,under which complete 30 experimental implementations to analyze the effect of interactions among multiple wayfinding clues on wayfinding behavior under different scenarios.The experimental results show that under everyday scenarios without time pressure,the lighting and guidance signage have a stronger effect on pedestrian path selection,while social factors have no significant effect.After adding time pressure,the effect of social factors is strengthened,and social factors or lighting information that contradict with the direction of guidance signage will generate a significant impairing effect on guidance signage.But lighting information that is consistent with the direction of guidance signage has a clear guidance,which shows that lighting is an essential factor in the design of underground space.Finally,put forward design suggestions for the construction of effective and safe underground wayfinding space based on the experimental results.