Performance of Traffic Networks during Multimodal Evacuations:
Simulation-Based Assessment
Article History
Submitted: 09 February 2011
Accepted: 01 August 2011
Published: 16 July 2012
Publication Data
ISSN (print): 1527-6988
ISSN (online): 1527-6996
Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers
Hana Naghawi, Ph.D.1; and Brian Wolshon, Ph.D., P.E.2
1Assistant
Professor, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Jordan Univ. Amman,
Jordan 11942 (corresponding author). E-mail: h.naghawi@ju.edu.jo
2Professor and Director, Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency, Dept. of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State Univ. Baton Rouge, LA 70803-6403. E-mail: brian@rsip.lsu.edu
Mass evacuations of urbanized areas can be expected to generate traffic demand significantly in excess of routine
daily travel conditions. Depending on the nature of the hazard and the population characteristics within the threat
area, the elevated demand conditions may last for several days and can impact thousands of miles of roads. This
paper presents the results of a project to evaluate the impact of a transit bus-based evacuation on the operation of a
regional road network during a mass evacuation. In the project, the TRANSIMS agent-based simulation system was
used to model the Citizen-Assisted Evacuation Plan (CAEP) for the City of New Orleans within the context of a
general evacuation. Regional plans developed by Louisiana officials to support the evacuation of low-mobility
individuals when under threat of hurricanes were used to code the model. However, because these plans have yet to
be fully implemented, their benefits, effect on the overall evacuation operation, and the adequacy of the service they
will provide has not been evaluated. In this the operational traffic characteristics of the busses and other vehicles
involved in the evacuation operation were simulated under a range of conditions. The results showed that while the
CAEP busses were able to increase the total number of people evacuated from the threat area, the additional
vehicles had a minimal impact when they were routed exclusively to arterial evacuation routes. However, when
bussed were routed to more heavily utilized freeways, travel delays increased and congestion queues increased by
about 50 percent.
Permalink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000065
ASCE Subject Headings: Evacuation, Public transportation, Traffic management, Simulation
Author keywords: Multimodal evacuation, Transit-based evacuation, Traffic operation, Microscopic
simulation, TRANSIMS
Read More: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/%28ASCE%29NH.1527-6996.0000065