@article{ref1,
title="Critical intersection signal optimization during urban evacuation utilizing dynamic programming",
journal="Journal of transportation safety and security",
year="2011",
author="Parr, Scott A. and Kaisar, Evangelos",
volume="3",
number="1",
pages="59-76",
abstract="Despite advancements in the field of traffic planning and operations, many major cities still rely on pretimed signal settings. With only pretimed signal control strategies, the secondary effects of a terror attack are magnified by slow evacuation times resulting in further loss of life. However, the cost of implementing new infrastructure based solely on the chance of a no-notice evacuation is not something that city planners are willing to do. The purpose of the research is to define a cost-effective methodology to develop pretimed signal control strategies to assist evacuations in urban areas. To that end, a dynamic programming methodology was developed to assist critical intersections in urban corridors. To test this methodology, a microscopic traffic-simulation environment was created for a case study of a 10 intersection evacuation corridor in Washington, DC. Using the proposed methodology to optimizing signal splits of a critical intersection within an evacuation corridor, evacuation clearance time was reduced by approximately 1 h. Furthermore, this formulation can be used to develop pretimed signal control settings for evacuation scenarios. Results showed that peak-hour signal timings are not sufficient in the case of an emergency, and signal timing plans must be tailored for emergency evacuation.<p />",
language="",
issn="1943-9962",
doi="10.1080/19439962.2011.532297",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19439962.2011.532297"
}