Improving transportation resource coordination for multimodal evacuation planning

In a large-scale urban evacuation necessitated by a disaster, many people can evacuate in their own automobiles, but evacuating individuals and families who do not have cars poses a great logistical challenge that many cities, counties, and states cannot overcome. Most emergency operations plans for large urbanized areas are insufficient in describing in specific and measurable terms how a major evacuation could be successfully conducted. This study systematically reviews the challenge of multimodal evacuation planning and presents a detailed literature review of published research and government documents to identify barriers to the enhancement of multimodal evacuation planning through the use of high-capacity vehicles to transport those who cannot evacuate on their own. Findings suggest that despite knowledge about multimodal transportation and the importance of integrating multimodalism into evacuation planning, most state and local governments do not apply the planning processes, training exercises, and resources necessary to evacuate households without automobiles. A research agenda for furthering multimodal evacuation planning is outlined, and recommendations are made for providing adequate multimodal transport during large-scale urban evacuations.