An extended dynamic model for pedestrian traffic considering individual preference

Complexity, dynamics and mutability are basic characteristics of pedestrian evacuation. However, most models for pedestrian traffic still lack an explanatory mechanism of the individual choice process. This study concerns a cell transmission model (CTM) for pedestrian traffic. But we focus on a new issue, namely, how to illustrate the decision-making process of each individual pedestrian. The decision field theory (DFT), a cognitive model to capture the deliberation process in decision making, is introduced to the cell transmission model and an extended dynamic pedestrian flow assignment model based on DFT and CTM is proposed. Pedestrian attitudes towards distance and crowdedness are considered and the individual preferences of pedestrians in the dynamic decision-making for the evacuation process are explored. Numerical studies show that the initial pedestrian distributions can have an effect on the evacuation process and different individual preferences of pedestrians will lead to different pedestrian choices. Even in the same cell, pedestrians’ route and exit choices may be different. Furthermore, some interesting phenomena can be observed, which illustrate that the preference reversals can be depicted in our model.