The massive evacuation from the Houston metropolitan area in response to hurricane Rita brought into sharp focus the difficulties in evacuating the metropolitan region efficiently and safely.
In 2006, H-GAC coordinated a multi-county evacuation task force to identify transportation issues within the metropolitan region. Working cooperatively with state and national evacuation planning, the scope of work produced short-term recommendations, which can improve evacuation capabilities. Longer term priorities recommended may require significant public investment over many years.
Short term planning activities focus on traffic operations, communications and logistics. Operational improvements focus on accident detection and management, changes in transit vehicle routing and scheduling, the elimination of bottlenecks at specific intersections and contra-flow lane operations. Opportunities to improve communications with the public and within the emergency response community, such as "hot lines" for emergency personnel, a protocol for public communications and public education for evacuation events, have also been explored.
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