Abstract: Due to unfamiliarity with the surrounding environment and some other reasons, evacuees in public multi-exit scenarios often choose the nearest exit to evacuate, which results in unbalanced usage of the exits. As a consequence, the overall public evacuation efficiency is usually very low. To solve this kind of problem, a evacuee assignment method was worked out according to the user equilibrium theory, which can effectively assign evacuees in public areas to different evacuation routes. With the method, the evacuation of a multi-exit public area with complex obstacles was simulated. A comparison was made between the effect of the nearest exit assignment method and that of the user equilibrium assignment method. Results show that considering the evacuation distance and the evacuation exit width, the proposed user equilibrium assignment method can improve evacuation efficiency, namely 38% and 65%, and significantly balance the usage of the exits.

Key words: evacuation, user equilibrium theory, decision-making behavior, optimal guidance, exit assignment