Strategic Planning of Urban Network Evacuation with Balanced Signal Control and Crosselimination Strategies

This paper addresses a critical operational issue of optimally converting some signalized intersections in an evacuation network into crosselimination control points to improve system performance. A mathematical model with equilibrium constraints incorporating a parametric variational inequality was formulated to optimize the distribution and locations of signalized and crosselimination intersections as well as their turning restriction, channelization, and signal timings with the objective of minimizing the total evacuation time. An efficient heuristic approach embedded with a diagonalization algorithm was developed to solve the proposed model in an acceptable amount of time. Extensive numerical analyses were performed to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed model in a subnetwork in Washington, DC.