Research Project Description
Project Number: 2901
Principal Investigators:
Anurag Pande, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, California Polytechnic State University.
Team Members:
Frances Edwards, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, San Jose State University.
Sudeshna Mitra, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, California Polytechnic State University
Project Objective:
The proposed effort is aimed at developing emergency response decision support system for transit centers that incorporates routing strategies for dispatching emergency vehicles to the center while evacuating riders and operators from the affected area.
Project Abstract:
Transit centers are at the heart of transportation systems in large urban areas. It probably explains why the transit systems of large cities have been the targets of terror attacks historically (Israel, Britain), with recent large scale coordinated attacks in this decade (e.g., Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005). In the event of a disaster a timely response could save a significant number of lives. However, timely and effective response requires a well coordinated strategy with the key elements of the response (i.e., hospitals, fire and law enforcement) working together. Involvement of multiple elements is part of what makes the emergency response so complicated.
We propose to develop an integrated emergency response system for a transit center in the San Jose area. The transit center located in the San Jose area (e.g., a bus depot) for this study would be selected based on expert inputs from the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) and Caltrans. Some of the research questions that need to be answered while developing a response strategy for a human-caused disaster are as follows:
• What is the optimal routing strategy for dispatching a fleet of emergency response vehicles to the disaster area given the underlying transportation network and dispatch location(s) surrounding the transit center?
• Where are the traffic bottlenecks that may impede the evacuating traffic as well as the fleet of emergency vehicles?
• If the disaster causes some network links to close what should be the re-routing strategy?
• How does the routing strategy for emergency vehicles fit in with the overall emergency response plans for the facility and community?
In the proposed project, microscopic traffic simulation model for the network surrounding one of the transit centers in the San Jose area would be developed. Microscopic simulation involves replication of real world transportation system operations to examine the inherent complexity, stochastic, and dynamic nature of these systems. In recent years, simulation modeling has become one of the most widely used tools for network analysis. Simulation models can answer?what-if?questions to aid system designers in assessing the impact of various changes on existing systems in a cost-effective way . Based on the simulation model for the underlying traffic network one can obtain fastest routes for emergency response vehicles from key dispatch locations (including hospitals, fire stations, and police departments) to the specified disaster area. Similarly, one can devise an optimal routing strategy for evacuating the transit center. Using the microscopic traffic simulation model one can easily assess the changes in the optimal routing strategies under different scenarios, such as unexpected closure of certain routes .
Current emergency planning practice in California empowers the police department of the jurisdiction to develop evacuation plans in concert with the Office of Emergency Services. While the Transportation Department may be consulted regarding road capacity, it is not common for traffic or transportation models to be used to determine road sharing, contra-flow and traffic light management plans for disasters. In addition, the local mass transit operator is usually listed as a resource within the Logistics Section of the Emergency Operations Plan, but is seldom part of the planning effort. This research would bring together the four emergency evacuation planning entities- police, emergency services, transportation and transit - to develop key data for use in the model, resulting in a more practical and realistic routing plan. A search of existing literature does not reveal any similar evacuation planning study that integrates city staff from police, emergency services and transportation with mass transit to develop a pre-event traffic management plan. Real world experience dictates that this is needed, For example, during Hurricane Katrina Amtrak trains left New Orleans empty before the storm as evacuation plans did not integrate mass transit or heavy rail. People without money and without gas, as well as those without cars, instead chose to shelter at the Superdome to disastrous results.
The most critical part of the proposed research would be to integrate the routing strategies identified based on microscopic traffic simulation with the existing overall emergency response framework for San Jose area such that riders and operators of the transit system can play an active role. The existing literature in the area of emergency response planning for human-caused disasters lacks the effective integration of routing strategies within the overall response framework. The investigators would devise an educational strategy to familiarize the users and operators of the transit systems with the routing strategies for the evacuees leaving the disaster area, as well as for the emergency vehicles moving in. If the riders and operators are familiar with the existence of a response plan it would lead to some order in an otherwise chaotic scenario. Effective integration of the routing strategies with community?s existing emergency response resources requires coordination between Traffic Operations and Disaster Management Plans. The identified routing strategies would be conveyed to the local first responders. Development of a streamlined, coordinated decision process that utilizes real network routing information has the potential to greatly improve disaster management.
Task Description:
The tasks indentified by the investigators are as follows.
Task 1: Literature review and selection of transit center in the San Jose area
Task 2: Data acquisition and preparation
Task 3: Development, verification, and validation of the simulation model
Task 4: Experimentation and routing strategy development
Task 5: Integration of routing strategies with the existing emergency response framework
Task 6: Report writing
Technology Transfer:
The investigators have identified two articles documenting the findings of the proposed research to be published in the following peer-reviewed journals:
Transportation Research Record: Application of Traffic simulation modeling for evacuation planning for transit centers
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice: Implementing emergency vehicle routing lessons from traffic simulation model into a transit center evacuation plan.
Results of the project will also be disseminated through the MTI website where those interested will be able to access the final report.
Potential Benefits of Project:
The goal of this research is to develop and integrate effective routing strategies for emergency response vehicles and evacuees within the community emergency response plans. Such integration would ensure timely response to a disaster and potentially enhance emergency preparedness of the transit centers located in a community. The routing strategies to be integrated with the emergency response plans would be developed using microscopic traffic simulation. The proposed approach would help us evaluate different routing strategies without the risks, costs, and complexity of multiple evacuation drills.
Project Funding: $58,311.00
