Much of what is known about evacuation operations and planning resides with local public safety and emergency management offices and is based on preparations for local quick-onset incidents, such as hazardous materials releases or wildfires, or for larger regional events, such as hurricanes, for which there is advance warning. A 2005 study by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and an informal review of evacuation events by FHWA in 2006 clearly demonstrate that at least 1,000 or more people are evacuated someplace in the United States every 2 to 3 weeks, most often at the local and regional levels.

Recognizing the importance of and need for new tools and processes to help agencies plan for and manage evacuations, the ITS Public Safety Program in partnership with FHWA's Office of Operations initiated a variety of research activities to assess the state of the practice and state of the art in evacuation transportation management. Their efforts in evacuation management and operations sought to draw experiences, best practices, effective uses of transportation technologies, and lessons learned from State and local communities that have considered or executed evacuations of populations as a result of a wide range of triggers, from wildfire to floods, from hazardous materials accidents to hurricanes or tropical storms, from malevolent threats or acts to earthquakes. The following are documents that were developed as part of this effort.

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Assessment of State of the Practice and State of the Art in Evacuation Transportation Management (Case Studies) – These case studies, developed in February 2006, identify commonalities and unique distinctions among the cross-section of incidents to identify successes, lessons learned, and best practices to provide guidance to agencies in their planning for and management of evacuations. These case studies include:

• El Dorado, Arkansas, hazardous-material fire
• Graniteville, South Carolina, chlorine gas incident
• South Salt Lake City, Utah, hazardous chemical leak from a tanker car
• Southern California wildfires.

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Assessment of State of the Practice and State of the Art in Evacuation Transportation Management (Literature Search) – This February 2006 report draws upon a collection of relevant domestic and international evacuation reference materials ranging from plans, policies, and procedures taken from newspaper and magazine articles, journals, industry publications, and other reports to assess and document what is currently known about the management of evacuations and transportation management during evacuation situations.

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Evacuation Transportation Management (Interview and Survey Results) – This June 2006 report documents emergency evacuation plans and practices employed by transportation management organizations in several large metropolitan areas within the United States. The authors discuss specific practices through the use of ITS and related traffic management tools and include Interviews with 14 public and private transportation agencies from five large metropolitan areas. Metropolitan areas include:

• San Francisco, California
• Portland, Oregon
• Phoenix, Arizona
• Jacksonville, Florida
• Charleston, South Carolina.

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Evacuations Management Operations (EMO) Modeling Assessment: Transportation Modeling Inventory – This June 2007 report documents more than 30 surface transportation modeling tools that have been applied or could be applied to evacuation modeling. The modeling inventory includes a description of each modeling tool and cites case studies where selected tools have been used in modeling evacuation events. It also provides an analysis of the tools as they relate to a modeling spectrum according to scope and analytical complexity, including a discussion of how the decisions supported by analysis drive tradeoffs in terms of scale and computational speed.

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Evacuation Transportation Management (Operational Concept) – This June 2006 report outlines a concept of operations for transportation management during a no-notice emergency evacuation. It illustrates how agencies interact with each other, what information is shared, and how transportation systems are effectively managed during disaster, and addresses who, what, when, where, why, and how the transportation management system needs to operate during a major no-notice event or disaster requiring evacuation.

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Low-Cost Surveillance for Rural Evacuation Routes System (Final Report) – This November 2005 report summarizes the Low-Cost Surveillance for Rural Evacuation Routes System (LCSRERS) pilot project, the project's findings, and the system recommendations resulting from pilot system testing and analysis. The project demonstrated a low-cost surveillance system model that can be used to monitor rural evacuation routes that would typically not utilize surveillance due to normally low traffic volumes.

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Routes to Effective Evacuation Planning Primer Series: Using Highways During Evacuation Operations for Events with Advance Notice – This January 2007 primer addresses transportation planning for evacuating populations and catalogs transportation management and operations advancements that may be applied to improve evacuation planning and operations when advance notice is possible. This primer is a tool to help local and State planners maximize the highway network and transportation tools and capabilities in evacuation plans and operations for their communities, States, or regions.

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Routes to Effective Evacuation Planning Primer Series: Using Highways for No-Notice Evacuations – This November 2007 primer provides ideas and considerations for transportation officials that are applicable to little- or no-notice evacuation incidents. It addresses the use of the highway system during evacuation operations following an incident that gives little to no warning and allows for no advance planning.

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Managing Pedestrians During Evacuations of Metropolitan Areas – This February 2007 report documents practices available to transportation managers and public safety agencies that can be used to ensure that people evacuating on foot and in vehicles do not hamper each others' mobility. It recommends that evacuation plans account for evacuating large numbers of pedestrians and includes considerations where the deliberate implementation of a pedestrian evacuation strategy is preferred in urban areas to get a large numbers of people beyond the danger zone.