01506419

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2459-12

Evacuation phasing or staging is a technique used to disperse traffic so that sudden, wide-ranging surges in travel demand do not overwhelm the available capacity of a road network during an emergency. Despite their many benefits, phased evacuations are not an appropriate strategy for all locations and conditions. Even though researchers have evaluated various aspects of their use, little, if any, systematic study of staged evacuations has been conducted over large multiregional areas. A research effort to simulate staged evacuations in a megaregion addresses this information gap. Megaregions are thought to be particularly vulnerable to evacuation problems because of their enormous populations, wide geographic expanses, and common locations along oceanic coasts or major inland waterways. A range of demand levels was used to investigate the effects of phased evacuation under different scenarios of road network congestion. Because mass evacuations are infrequent and a full megaregion evacuation never has been conducted, this simulation-based framework offered an opportunity to create and assess a megaregion mass evacuation in microlevel detail. Simulation results revealed that the effectiveness of phased evacuations could vary widely according to the level of demand and congestion in the network. In general, no significant improvements could be gained by phasing when the network was only marginally congested or in the absence of congestion. The methods presented can be used for other locations and for other types of hazards, but whether similar levels of effectiveness would be experienced in other locations or for other events is unknown.

01551909

14-5493

English

pp 101–109

2014

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309295512

Print

Figures (7) ; Maps; References (27) ; Tables (4)

Disasters and emergency operations; Evacuation; Network analysis (Planning); Regional planning; Simulation; Traffic congestion

Road networks

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 27 2014 3:55PM

• Accessibility of Low-Income Populations to Safe Zones During Localized Evacuations
• Cost Assessment of Highway Bridge Network Subjected to Extreme Seismic Events
• Efficient Negative Cycle–Canceling Algorithm for Finding the Optimal Traffic Routing for Network Evacuation with Nonuniform Threats
• Generic Incident Model for Investigating Traffic Incident Impacts on Evacuation Times in Large-Scale Emergencies
• Indicator Approach for Assessing Climate Change Vulnerability in Transportation Infrastructure
• Mathematical Modeling of Command-and-Control Strategies in Crowd Movement
• Mobility Benefits of Intermediate Crossovers on Contraflow Facilities During Hurricane Evacuation
• Modeling and Assessment of Crossing Elimination for No-Notice Evacuations
• Network Flow Solution Method for Optimal Evacuation Traffic Routing and Signal Control with Nonuniform Threat
• Planning Postdisaster Operations in a Highway Network: Network Design Model with Interdependencies
• Simulation Study of Evacuation Routes and Traffic Management Strategies in Short-Notice Emergency Evacuation
• Urban Ferries and Catastrophic Floods: Experiences and Lessons Learned in Brisbane, Australia, and New York City
• Use of Mobile Lidar Data to Assess Hurricane Damage and Visualize Community Vulnerability
• Use of Social Media Data to Explore Crisis Informatics: Study of 2013 Oklahoma Tornado