Tuesday, August 19, 2008
King of Prussia BID
On August 7, 2008, GVF Transporation attened a conference, hosted by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals that discussed the issue of traffic management during evacuations. The key note speaker was Dr. Brian Wolshon, an associate professor at Louisiana State University, who was part of the team that developed the New Orleans mass evacuation plan that was employed during Hurricane Katrina. Many of the emergency management organizations within Chester and Montgomery Counties attended the conference as part of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Regional Task Force. Dr. Wolshon was quick to praise the task force for their creation of ReadyNotifyPA, an alert system that immediately notifies citizens in Southeastern PA of emergencies or disasters.
The traffic congestion that results from evacuations, and finding ways to mitigate that congestion, was the main focus of the conference. One of the more effective ways to mitigate the congestion during an evacuation is by using contra flow lanes, or lanes that flow in the opposite direction during an evacuation. Dr. Wolshon explained how this concept was utilized when creating the New Orleans evacuation plan. Contra flow lanes can be highly successful in evacuations, however, they are not applicable to every situation and they require coordinated participation from emergency management crews. Without such participation from these teams, contra flow lanes can become the same bottlenecks and traffic jams that they seek to eliminate. From a planning perspective, contra flow lanes must be marked out in advance, and areas of highway must be chosen that meet contra flow standards. A good example of contra flow lanes being used without proper planning or participation occurred during the evacuation of Houston prior to Hurricane Rita in 2005, when a 16-lane highway turned into a parking lot. Regardless of whether or not contra flow is used, coordination among emergency management organizations is crucial during a mass evacuation. Even just 10 minutes of traffic congestion during an evacuation can take 40 minutes to clear out.
The traffic congestion that results from evacuations, and finding ways to mitigate that congestion, was the main focus of the conference. One of the more effective ways to mitigate the congestion during an evacuation is by using contra flow lanes, or lanes that flow in the opposite direction during an evacuation. Dr. Wolshon explained how this concept was utilized when creating the New Orleans evacuation plan. Contra flow lanes can be highly successful in evacuations, however, they are not applicable to every situation and they require coordinated participation from emergency management crews. Without such participation from these teams, contra flow lanes can become the same bottlenecks and traffic jams that they seek to eliminate. From a planning perspective, contra flow lanes must be marked out in advance, and areas of highway must be chosen that meet contra flow standards. A good example of contra flow lanes being used without proper planning or participation occurred during the evacuation of Houston prior to Hurricane Rita in 2005, when a 16-lane highway turned into a parking lot. Regardless of whether or not contra flow is used, coordination among emergency management organizations is crucial during a mass evacuation. Even just 10 minutes of traffic congestion during an evacuation can take 40 minutes to clear out.
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