Evacuation dynamics of pedestrians passing through a low-boundary exit in the context of sound signal

Previous studies indicate that congestion is more likely to occur in the exit restriction area. Besides the background music in public places may have a potential impact on pedestrian movement. However, the influence mechanisms of low-boundary exit and background music on pedestrian evacuation are still unclear. Therefore, in this paper, the evacuation characteristics of pedestrians at a low-boundary exit were investigated with a series of controlled experiments. Different commands (listening to music while walking and following the tempo of the music) and different types of music (music and metronome) were designed in the experiment to analyze the influence of sound signal on the evacuation process. The result indicates that a larger width of low-boundary exit leads to a shorter evacuation time. The flow of low-boundary exit is higher than that of high-boundary exit. In addition, it is found that sound signal has a negative effect on evacuation efficiency, and the influence level is varied with different commands and music types. Specifically, the flow of following the beat of music is lower than that of listening to music, while the flow of walking with the beat of metronome is higher than that of walking with the beat of music. This study can contribute to understanding the evacuation dynamics of pedestrians when passing through a low-boundary exit. Furthermore, the performance of sound signal can be useful to develop management strategies for pedestrians under the emergency evacuation.