Citation

Chang Y, Edara P. Int. J. Transp. 2016; 4(2): 69-80.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Science and Engineering Research Support Society)

DOI

10.14257/ijt.2016.4.2.05

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Current hurricane evacuation plans of coastal states in the United States do not actively coordinate the provision of contraflow access points and ramp closure locations on evacuation routes. In this paper, contraflow and ramp closure techniques are integrated and optimized to achieve higher evacuation efficiency. A simulation-based optimization framework for identifying the intermediate crossover between regular and contraflow lanes and ramp closure locations is proposed. The framework is applied to a case study of Hampton Roads, Virginia; using models developed based on evacuee behavioral data and transportation network and traffic control data. Two heuristic solution approaches, Genetic algorithm and Tabu search, are applied to determine optimal intermediate crossover and ramp closure locations for the case study network. The importance of each crossover and ramp closure location included in the optimal solution was also determined.

Keywords: hurricane evacuation, intermediate crossovers, contraflow, heuristic algorithm, dynamic traffic assignment

Copyright c 2016 SERSC

Language: en