Wayfinding Performance Evaluation In Rail Transit Stations Based On Pedestrians’ Visual Search Characteristics And Behaviors

The comprehensive plan for three-dimensional transportation has led to the development of multi-line transfer rail transit stations,improving the accessibility of stations and greatly facilitating people’s travel and daily life.However,the large passenger flow,complex rail routes,and complicated spatial structures have brought about difficulties in wayfinding in rail stations.The process of wayfinding involves information exchange between people and the environment,and the guidance signage system is an important tool in the wayfinding process,as well as a key factor in improving wayfinding performance.Analyzing the process and behavioral characteristics of human and sign interaction is a prerequisite for optimizing wayfinding design.Therefore,this article conducted on-site wayfinding eye-tracking experiments,and conducted a detailed analysis and discussion on the visual search and sign recognition in the wayfinding process,behavioral performance in wayfinding,and the relationship between wayfinding performance and visual search parameters.The main research content and conclusions are as follows:(1)Through the analysis of pedestrian visual search characteristics under road finding tasks,it was found that pedestrian attention shifts with directional signs and spatial structures;The elderly population has a longer average recognition time and more fixation times for directional signs;The most easily perceived sign type for pedestrians is wall type,followed by hanging type;The average fixation time of directional signs is shown as wall type>hanging type>ground type;The amount of information and type of signage have a significant impact on the visual recognition efficiency of directional signage;The amount of information for a single directional sign should not exceed 5 pieces.(2)Through the analysis of pathfinding performance characteristics,it was found that the time required for pathfinding is related to the spatial position of the starting and ending points,and the stopping points are mainly distributed at the starting point,path nodes,escalator exits,and the center of the corridor;The excessive number of signs,the difficulty in understanding the content of the signs,and the lack of significant visual design of the signs are important reasons for confusion in finding the way inside the track yard station;The difference in pathfinding performance is not due to gender factors.The elderly population has a relatively higher frequency of turning the wrong corner and stopping to observe,but the influence of age factors is not significant;The pathfinding effect using directional strategy is better than that using alignment strategy.(3)Through the analysis of the relationship between pathfinding performance and visual search parameters,it was found that the visual recognition time of directional signs is a good predictive indicator of pathfinding time.The rationality of the placement of directional signs is of great significance in reducing the number of stops during the pathfinding process.The root cause of turning errors lies in the visual recognition and spatial cognition of signs,rather than the number of visual recognition signs.(4)A graded evaluation model for pathfinding performance was established,and pathfinding performance was measured from two levels: visual search and pathfinding results.The results indicate that the less time spent on pathfinding and the higher the effective identification ratio,the better the pathfinding performance,and relatively speaking,the younger group has better pathfinding performance.