Developing a WalkOut Evacuation Plan for Washington, DC

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Developing a Walk-Out Evacuation Plan for
Washington, DC
TRB National Transportation Planning Applications
Conference by Phil Shapiro, VHB
May 2007
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Contributors

• Soumya Dey, DDOT
• Joe Kammerman, DDOT
• George Branyan, DDOT
• David Anspacher, VHB
• Dalia Leven, VHB
• Peter Cusolito, VHB
• Joe Ojeda, VHB

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Objectives

• Facilitate pedestrian egress due to an event that
  requires an undeclared evacuation of District
• Terrorism
• Chemical spill
• Other
• Identify pedestrian evacuees
• Volume
• Travel patterns
• Develop systematic plan to facilitate pedestrian
  egress

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Model Planning Assumptions

• Initial step of continuing planning process
• Follow-on planning required for MOUs, SOPs, etc
• Plan supports evacuation of
• Entire City
• Individual Sub-areas of District
• Includes residents, non-residents visitors
• Separate plans for
• Mobility impaired
• K-12 students (public and private)
• Start-up time for evacuee bus transportation 3
  hrs

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Project Status

• Initial Analysis Completed
• Draft Proposal for Inclusion in Emergency
  Transportation Annex
• Stakeholder Coordination Continuing
• Operational Issues Under Review
• Standard Operating Procedures Must be Developed

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EMP Sustainability Model
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Project Overview
Determine Evacuation Scenarios
Pedestrian Volumes and Routes
Emergency Transportation Annex (ETA)
Operational Strategies for Implementation
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Review Existing Information

• Threat Vulnerability Assessment
• Emergency Transportation Annex
• Vehicle Evacuation Plan/Routes
• Consequence Mgmt Center Traffic Mgmt Center
  protocols, procedures, diagrams and maps
• Transfer Locations
• Census Data
• Travel Data
• Available pedestrian facilities (sidewalks, etc.)

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Evacuation Structure

• Transfer Points
• Collection Areas
• Bus Routes

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Pedestrian Evacuation Structure
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Pedestrian Evacuation Structure (Continued)
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Walk-Out Routes

• Pedestrians guided to routes that minimize
  interference with vehicular travel
• Pedestrians able to walk on all facilities
• Pedestrians will be supported on walk-out routes
• Information
• Police / traffic control
• Food and water
• Medical
• Use of sidewalks and a few designated roadways
  (only when sidewalks too crowded)

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Evacuation Time Periods

• Daytime Incident
• Most bodies at desks
• Weekday - 1000 a.m. to 200 p.m.
• Evacuation of entire city
• Nighttime Incident
• Most bodies in bed
• Weekday - 1200 a.m. to 400 a.m.
• Evacuation of entire city

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Model Structure
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Estimating Number of Evacuees (Daytime)
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Estimating Number of Evacuees(Trip Generation)
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Estimating Number of Evacuees(Trip Generation)
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Estimating Number of Resident Evacuees(Trip
Generation)
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Estimating Number of Non-Resident
Evacuees(Trip Generation)
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Estimating Number of Visitor Evacuees(Trip
Generation)
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Pedestrian Volumes

• Evacuees at time of event
• Daytime scenario approx. 850,000
• Nighttime scenario approx. 700,000
• Evacuees that are pedestrians
• Daytime scenario approx. 400,000
• Nighttime scenario approx. 300,000
• Evacuees by sub-area

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District of Columbia Sub-Areas
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Evacuees by Sub-Areas
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Destination/ Mode Choice
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Destination/Mode Choice

• Choice of destination (transfer point, collection
  area) is determined by weighted total time
• Walk Time (weight 1.5)
• Wait Time (weight 1)
• Startup Time (assumed as 3 hrs)
• Queue Time
• Bus Time (weight 1)
• Logit model distributed evacuees across all of
  the available transfer points and collection areas

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Pedestrian Evacuees by Transfer Point(Inside
District)
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Daytime Pedestrian Evacuees
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Assignment

• Uses standard regional model with some
  modifications to the network
• Addition of non-vehicular facilities
• Removal of vehicle-only highway facilities
• Removal of all one-way restrictions
• Definition of all speeds as 3 mph (4 ft/sec)

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Walk-Out Corridors
Preliminary Draft
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Corridor Analysis
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Corridor Volume Capacity Comparison
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Corridor Support
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Research Topics

• How far are people willing to walk during an
  evacuation?
• Where do you direct pedestrian evacuees?
• Who will wait for transportation and who will
  walk?
• What support services are necessary?
• Water
• Medical
• Other
• How can undeclared evacuation be supported?
• If sidewalk facilities are insufficient to
  accommodate pedestrian volumes, how do you
  dedicate roadways to evacuees?
• Limited access facilities
• At grade roadways

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Questions?