Study of emergency exit choice behaviour at metro stations in fire evacuation

Emergency evacuation is crucial for any unprecedented events like fire and terrorist attacks inside any underground metro rail station. Understanding emergency route and exit choice behavior of metro rail commuters is vital, which can be done through exit choice modelling. In this study, a realistic choice experiment is conducted to understand the exit choice behavior of commuters during fire emergency evacuation from different metro stations of Delhi metro. Sketchup-3D models are used to make the scenarios more realistic. Participants are asked to choose one exit out of the three given choices in each scenario. The exit choice behaviour in different situation is recorded. The choice data is used to calibrate different choice models (standard logit and mixed logit models). The study finds that mixed logit models (Mixed MNL) describe the choices of the respondents better than the standard logit models (MNL). This study also shows that the incorporation of latent factors improves the model fit to a greater extent. The results of this study can be used to develop or validate the exit choice behavior module of any egress simulation software. The results can also be used to design better evacuation systems for metro stations.