Evaluation of locomotion methods in virtual reality navigation environments: An involuntary position shift and task performance

•Effects of four locomotion methods on user safety and performance were examined•Walking in place and running in place can cause involuntary movements of the user•For each locomotion method, larger involuntary movements were found in the turning course than in the straight course•Teleportation required the shortest task completion time, but the error time ratio was the largest•The safety issue of the users’ involuntary movement should be solved