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Citation |
Liu S, Murray-Tuite P, Schweitzer L. Transp. Res. Rec. 2011; 2234: 79-88. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2011, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
Under no-notice conditions in which family members are collecting dependents, the geographic location and the characteristics (e.g., the number of entrances and exits) of the pickup points become factors crucial to efficient evacuation. This paper presents a linear integer mathematical program for facilities to relocate dependents who need to be picked up in an optimal manner. The program is iterated with a traffic simulation model to obtain an optimal set of locations to which dependents are relocated, on the basis of anticipated travel times. The entire methodology is applied to a sample network based on the Chicago Heights, Illinois, network with three safety time thresholds. The results indicated that the safe evacuation time threshold is important to the relocation strategy. When the safe evacuation time threshold is adequate, the relocation of dependents increases the number of successful evacuees and increases the average travel speed of the network; it also significantly benefits those who rely on public transit to evacuate because new sites are closer to bus stops and walking times to those stops are reduced. Application of the proposed methodology can assist local decision makers with taking effective measures during no-notice evacuations, and the relocation sites could be part of local evacuation management plans. |