PURPOSES: We studied the signal operation method with a focus on swift evacuation of people from disaster-affected urban areas.
METHODS: We selected Yeouido, which is at a high risk of being affected by natural disasters, as the urban area in our study. The analysis time for the Yeouido network was divided into four stages of six hours each, based on the traffic characteristics. The disaster scenarios were divided into small-scale and large-scale, and the analysis time and the disaster scale were set as the variables.
RESULTS: From the analysis, it was found that the evacuation efficiencies were similar in the cases of entry control and increasing the green light duration for the main direction. However, the most effective approach is to apply entry control in case of disasters occurring at dawn and in the evening, with relatively low traffic volume. The most effective method is to increase the green light duration for the main direction of the main line in the time zone.
CONCLUSIONS: As the scale of the disaster and the traffic volume increase, there is a limit on the extent to which the evacuation time could be reduced through signal operation. Therefore, signal control is most effective when the traffic volume is low and the disaster scale is small.