Evacuation Routes go Hi-Tech

Reported October 2008

TUCSON, Ariz. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- In most American cities, gridlock is a fact of life -- but don’t blame it all on that daily commute. Sometimes, it’s the unexpected. Natural disasters and other emergencies can create huge traffic jams. In fact, hurricanes Katrina and Gustav both forced 2 million people out of their homes. Now, scientists and engineers may have a solution to evacuation chaos.

For Angela Tyson and other drivers, detours mean headaches.

"Sometimes I wanna cry because I’m stuck in traffic so long!" Tyson told Ivanhoe.

With road construction, detours usually come with some advance warning; but how do you plan for the unexpected?

The massive Minneapolis bridge collapse was one of the first tests for a new kind of computer software. It’s a rapid response emergency planning tool designed to help traffic engineers reroute thousands -- even millions -- of drivers quickly, whether it’s a bridge disaster or a statewide hurricane evacuation.

"This model allows us to accommodate such a vast amount of traffic over a short period of time, over such a large geographical area," Yi-Chang Chiu, Ph.D., a civil engineer at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., told Ivanhoe.

Civil engineers at the University of Arizona developed the tool, which analyzes traffic flow to create a model based on drivers' behavior.

"Basically, with this model, you are able to estimate -- under any circumstances -- how they choose when to leave their destination … which route they take," Dr. Chiu said.

Using this software, transportation managers can respond and adapt as emergencies unfold. They can even plan for potential traffic nightmares before they happen -- like evacuating a packed football stadium in an emergency.

The American Society of Civil Engineers, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Yi-Chang Chiu, Ph.D
The University of Arizona
(520) 626-8462
chiu@email.arizona.edu

The American Society of Civil Engineers
http://www.asce.org

Joan Buhrman
(703) 295-6404
jbuhrman@asce.org

Lois Smith
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
(310) 394-1811
http://www.hfes.org
lois@hfes.org

Barry List
INFORMS
(443) 757-3560
barry.list@informs.org

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