Several recent mass evacuations, including those in advance of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Hurricane Rita in Houston, have demonstrated the effects of limitedplanning for carless populations. The lack of planning left a significant portion of the mobility-limited population of both these cities unable to flee in advance of the storms. Since 2005, however, both of these cities (as well as others across the United States) have developed transit-assisted mass evacuation plans at various levels of detail. Because these plans are relatively recent and do not have a history of experience on which to base their performance, it is difficult to know how well, or even if, they will work. This article describes one of the first attempts to systematically model and simulate transit-based evacuation strategies. In it, the development of and the results gained from an application of the TRansportation ANalysis and SIMulation System (TRANSIMS) agent-based transportation simulation system to model assisted evacuation plans of New Orleans are described. In the research, average travel time and total evacuation time were used to compare the results of a range of conditions over a two-day evacuation period, including two alternative transit evacuation routing plans and four alternative network loading scenarios. Among the general findings of the research was that the most effective scenarios of transit-based evacuation were those that were carried out during time periods during which the auto-based evacuation was in its "lull" (nonpeak/overnight) periods. These conditions resulted in up to a 10% reduction in overall travel time and up to 45% reduction in the total evacuation time when compared to peak evacuation conditions. It was also found that routing buses to alternate arterial routes reduced the overall travel time by up to 52% and the total evacuation time by up to 14%.
Accident statistics show a relatively low level of traffic safety in Jordan compared to developed countries producing large socioeconomic losses. The number of accidents has increased five old-fold between 1995 and 2009 reaching 122,793 in 2009 with an estimated cost of JOD 336 million (equivalent to about $504 million). This study investigates the present and future magnitude of road traffic accidents in Jordan in order to provide a better understanding of the road safety trauma and assist strategic planning and optional allocation of resources. Potential countermeasures are identified and evaluated by examining the attitudes of road users toward the effectiveness and favorability of these measures. Index Terms-Accident costs, countermeasures, Jordan, Road user attitudes.
The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of implementing four Unconventional Arterial Intersection Designs (UAIDs) including median U-Turn, Superstreet, Jughandle and Single Quadrant Intersection on a major arterial road using SYNCHRO microscopic simulation software. For this purpose, Wadi Saqra Signalized Intersection on Shaker Bin Zaid major arterial road in Amman, Jordan was selected. The simulation results showed that only the Jughandle improved the intersection Level of Service (LOS) slightly, F–E. Nevertheless, the intersection delay was significantly reduced by 64.81%, 76.6%, 91.28% and 75.60% on the proposed Median U-Turn, Superstreet, Jughandle and Single Quadrant unconventional intersection design, respectively. This indicated that these UAIDs don't perform well under heavy traffic volumes. Also, since the Jughandle was the only UAID which improved the LOS on the main intersection, the operational performance of Prince Shaker Bin Zaid arterial after implementing the Jughandle at the main intersection was evaluated including the main intersection: Wadi Saqra intersection, one prior to the main intersection and one after the main intersection. It was found that the use of the Jughandle increased the average travel speed by 35% and decreased the average stopped delay by 28.68% on the arterial road. Also, this paper evaluated the current transportation system and road user's attitude towards UAIDs' implementation through a questionnaire survey. The results indicated high acceptance of UAIDs. Finally, the construction cost for each UAID type was estimated. It was found that the Jughandle had the highest construction cost due to its high acquisition cost.
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