Evaluation of different contraflow strategies for hurricane evacuation in Charleston,South Carolina

Abstract

Limited specific evidence is available on the effectiveness of using contraflow as an evacuation traffic management tool. This study was conducted to determine the best combination of strategy options for evacuating Charleston, SC, along route I-26 during the event of a hurricane or other events. PARAMICS microscopic traffic simulator was used to evaluate the impact of each combination of evacuee response timing and traffic control strategy, such as contraflow, with respect to average vehicular travel time and evacuation duration. Analysis revealed the combination of management strategies that created the lowest evacuation durations and travel times for several types of anticipated evacuee responses. Furthermore, a proposed reconfiguration of the I-526/I-26 interchange for contraflow operations produced additional savings in travel times and evacuation durations. These findings support the use of all lanes for contraflow during all evacuations and provide justification to examine a possible reconfiguration of the I-526/I-26 interchange for use during evacuations.