Day-to-day behaviour for pedestrians in a circle antipode scenario: experiment and simulation

Abstract This study aims to investigate the behavioural evolution patterns of pedestrians who repeatedly traverse the same scenarios. To accomplish this objective, we implemented a repeated circle antipode experiment, ensuring consistent conditions for all participants. This experimental design allows for an effective examination of participant performance across multiple rounds. Our findings revealed that specific walking characteristics experienced significant changes with the progression of successive experiments, and participants demonstrated notable differences in their chosen routes. Recognizing the ability of the day-to-day dynamic model to describe the evolution of network flows and the similarities between traffic and pedestrian flows, we apply the modelling approach of the day-to-day dynamic model to the construction of pedestrian route choice modelling. Consequently, we developed a series of round-to-round pedestrian route choice models to characterize our experiment. These models factored in both historical walking experiences and the influence of neighbours. Our model proved to be reliable, achieving a route choice accuracy of approximately 80% in simulations of circle antipode experiments. The results of this study can provide valuable insights into pedestrian dynamics, aiding in understanding pedestrian behaviour during repetitive walking and facilitating the development of more accurate round-to-round route choice models.