Kim, Sangho

Given a transportation network having source nodes with evacuees and destination nodes, we want to find a contraflow network configuration, i.e., ideal direction for each edge, to minimize evacuation time. Contraflow is considered a potential remedy to reduce congestion during evacuations in the context of homeland security and natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes). This problem is computationally challenging because of the very large search space and the expensive calculation of evacuation time on a given network. To our knowledge, this paper presents the first macroscopic approaches for the solution of contraflow network reconfiguration incorporating road capacity constraints, multiple sources, congestion factor, and scalability. We formally define the contraflow problem based on graph theory and provide a framework of computational structure to classify our approaches. A Greedy heuristic is designed to produce high quality solutions with significant performance. A Bottleneck Relief heuristic is developed to deal with large numbers of evacuees. We evaluate the proposed approaches both analytically and experimentally using real world datasets. Experimental results show that our contraflow approaches can reduce evacuation time by 40% or more.

A route-based signal preemption strategy is developed to provide the most efficient and safe route for an emergency vehicle (EV) under a given network and traffic conditions. It combines an on-line route selection procedure and a dynamic sequential preemption method. The on-line route selection module first quantifies the level of congestion for each link on a given network using a congestion index and finds the least congested route for a given origin/destination pair using the well-known Dijkstra's algorithm. Further it also selects the safest signal phase for each intersection for a given travel direction of an EV. Once an emergency route is selected, the dynamic preemption module starts the preemption of the signals on the emergency route sequentially considering the location of the EV and the state of signal phase for each intersection. By sequentially preempting the traffic signals on a route with advance activation, the proposed strategy tries to clear the traffic queue for an EV approaching each intersection. The evaluation results with pre-specified emergency routes show 10 - 16% reduction of the emergency vehicle travel time for relatively long and/or complicated routes compared with the existing intersection-by-intersection preemption method. Further, the network-wide performance measures with the proposed dynamic preemption method were very compatible with those from the existing intersection-by-intersection clearance method.

A corridor simulation environment with the capability of modeling various types of traffic control strategies as external control modules is critically important in developing and improving corridor management strategies. In this research, a microscopic network simulation model, Vissim, is used to develop such an environment. The new stratified Minnesota Department of Transportation metering algorithm was simulated using the 169 freeway, and its performance was compared with that of the fixed-metering method. Based on that analysis, an alternative approach to determining each entrance ramp's minimum metering rate was developed and coded, as well as an adaptive approach to automatically coordinating a freeway meter with the adjacent intersection signal. The results clearly show the advantage of reducing the overall delay at the ramp-intersection area, while producing higher or compatible total vehicle-miles compared with the conventional intersection-control methods, i.e., pre-timed and actuated, without employing ramp metering. The corridor evaluation environment can be used for future studies, including the continuous enhancement of the stratified metering algorithm to take advantage of the maximum allowable wait time, automatic identification of the most effective metering strategy depending on prevailing traffic conditions, and extension of the adaptive coordination method to multiple intersections adjacent to a freeway entrance ramp. Note: The Phase I report is available at https://hdl.handle.net/11299/856.