Influencing Pedestrian Route Choice Through Environmental Stimuli: A Long-Term Ecological Experiment

Urban centers are getting crowded, public transportation is becoming congested, and mass events are attracting an increasing number of people. Crowd disasters are not rare, and to prevent them the careful planning of pedestrian facilities and collaboration among stakeholders in the organization of events are crucial. When communication and coordination among stakeholders are sufficient, safety can usually be achieved; however, even in such cases, unexpected situations may occur. Automated crowd-control methods are required to address such situations. However, little is known about how crowd behavior can be influenced without direct human intervention. In this study, we investigated the use of environmental stimuli to modify pedestrian behavior (more specifically, route choice) in an educational facility. Colors, lights, signs, and sounds were used to influence route selection. The results show that light and, in part, LED information displays are somehow effective and could be valid candidates to pave the way for automated crowd control systems (especially for night events). The experiment presented here considers low crowd density. However, we believe that this could help encourage the balanced use of space by pedestrians under normal conditions and establish good practices. In turn, this can delay the creation of high densities, which are often the cause of fatalities in crowd disasters, and provide staff with time for intervention.