Real-time traffic management under emergency evacuation based on dynamic traffic assignment

Effective evacuation traffic management is crucial to maximize the utilization of transportation systems and to minimize the fatalities and losses. A new approach for real-time traffic management under emergency evacuation is proposed in this paper. Distinct from the well-studied evacuation planning, real-time traffic management for evacuation aims at dynamically controlling traffic flow under evacuation in such a way that certain system objective like minimization of evacuation time could be achieved. The proposed approach is based on dynamic traffic assignment by considering the traffic network under evacuation as a dynamic system. First, the dynamic system optimal traffic assignment model based on the shortest emergency evacuation time is established. Second, the optimal solution to the optimal problem is obtained by using Pontryagin minimum principle. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate that the proposed approach can be effectively carried out in emergency evacuation.