Empirical Study and Modelling of Pedestrians’ Route Choice in a Complex Facility

This paper presents an empirical analysis of pedestrians’ route choice in a complex facility. The study has been done within the framework of a real-time evacuation assistant. The investigated facility is part of the promenade of the ESPRIT arena in Dusseldorf, Germany. The route choice data are obtained from an automatic person counting system consisting of cameras. The collected data are presented in terms of frequencies, i.e. the number of persons passing a counting line or exit per minute in the direction “in” and “out” of a section. Using that information, the proportional usage of the different exits is calculated. Also the global route profiles of spectators for entering and leaving the arena are obtained. The results for different football games are presented and analysed in details. A modelling approach based on a quickest path algorithm is used to reproduce the exit choosing behaviour of the spectators.