A METHODOLOGY FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR LARGE-SCALE EMERGENCY EVACUATIONS

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology to analyze and evaluate the impacts of different factors affecting large-scale emergency evacuations from a traffic operations perspective. The methodology revolves around a microcomputer-based system developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to simulate traffic flow during emergency vehicular evacuations that are the results of natural disasters or man-made catastrophes. Because this system permits a very detailed representation of the traffic network, and also allows to model demographic characteristics such as spatial population distribution and departure times, it is possible to use it to evaluate the impacts of factors such as regional traffic operations coordination, the deployment of rural ITS technology, and the implementation of certain unusual traffic management techniques (e.g., counter/contra flow and staggered departing time strategies) on an evacuation exercise