Applying e-transportation to traffic evacuation management under human-caused threats

As part of intelligent transportation systems, Internet-connected sensors and cameras have become ubiquitous along roads and highways, enabling many novel e-transportation applications. In this paper, we leverage this emerging technology to improve and support homeland security. In particular, we propose two evacuation algorithms, all-links and fastest-links, and perform simulation studies to compare their effectiveness and efficiency in handling single and multiple incidents scenarios. These algorithms are part of a smart traffic evacuation management system (STEMS) being developed to provide rapid and efficient response to human-caused threats and disasters, by creating dynamic evacuation plans based on real-time traffic information obtained from sensor data available through the Internet.