Highway traffic management in incidents of national significance

Abstract

A framework is proposed to help federal and state agencies in responding to disasters by effectively routing vehicles around a disaster area. The proposed framework includes an information center that uses prediction and optimization models and heuristic algorithms to generate alternative routes for those vehicles that are not able to follow their planned routes because of a disaster. The prediction model determines the routes that will be taken by the vehicles that do not have any communication means. For those vehicles that can communicate with the information center, alternative routes are generated by an optimization model. When a disaster strikes, the information center is immediately informed about the damage and the current traffic conditions in and around the disaster area. The information gathered is used by the optimization model to find alternative routes. The proposed framework is tested using a simulation model on a hypothetical terrorist attack that takes place in Mississippi. The simulation model is executed to compare the system-wide average mobility and speed for three different cases. The first case represents the traffic situation under normal conditions prior to any disaster. The second case shows the affect of setting up simple detours to reroute the traffic after a disaster. The third case shows the traffic conditions if the proposed framework is implemented. The results indicate that the proposed framework improves both system mobility and average speed.