The position of a door can significantly impact on pedestrians’ evacuation time in an emergency

• A new evacuation model based on game theory is proposed.
• Different parts of pedestrians in a room have different preferential directions.
• The optimal position of a door always locates in the middle of the wall.

We study the evacuation model in the framework of game theory and propose a new model in which individuals have preferential directions. In the proposed model, pedestrians are divided into three parts with each part has its own preferred directions. Based on the new model, different positions of a door in rectangle and square rooms were tested to investigate how door positions impact on escape time. In this way, the best location can be found. Simulation results show that no matter how big the room is and how many occupants in it are, the optimal position of a door always locates in the middle of the wall. The optimal door position fits intuitive feeling of human, which also verifies the effectiveness of the proposed model. Therefore, our model simulates the process of pedestrian evacuation naturally. The work in this paper may provide guidance for the reduction of casualties in the event of a real-life escape.