SIMULATING THE EVACUATION OF A SMALL CITY - THE EFFECTS OF TRAFFIC FACTORS

A behavioral-based simulation model for spontaneous urban evacuation i s used to examine the sensitivity of network clearance time to several traffic factors (e.g. interaction with pedestrians, intersection trav ersing time, and car ownership) and route choice mechanisms (shortest path and myopic behavior). It is a micro traffic simulation model base d on stochastic simulation of series of events in a radiological emerg ency situation. Evacuation time comes closer to reality when interacti on with pedestrians and a uniform distribution of intersection travers ing time are assumed. More realistic results are also found whenever r outes are selected according to the maximal distance from the last car . The sensitivity of clearance time to population growth and car owner ship indicates that the model can be easily applied to cities of vario us sizes.