emergency evacuation planning model for special needs populations utilizing public transit systems

The need to have evacuation plans in place for readily implementation for special need populations has become evident after catastrophic events such as Hurricane Katrina. For the purpose of this research special need populations will include, but are not limited to, people with physical disabilities, senior citizens, non-English speaking populations, residents and employees without vehicles, and tourists. The main objective of this research is to evaluate different evacuation procedures for special need populations from large urban areas utilizing current public transit systems. A microscopic simulation model was constructed to analyze real life scenarios for evacuation methodologies. A linear programming optimization model was developed to find the optimum locations for evacuation bus stops for the case study area. The results from this research were very interesting and can aid evacuation planners in the future.