The Role of Transit in Emergency Evacuation

TRB Special Report 294: The Role of Transit in Emergency Evacuation explores the roles that transit systems can play in accommodating the evacuation, egress, and ingress of people from and to critical locations in times of emergency.  The report focuses on major incidents that could necessitate a partial to full evacuation of the central business district or other large portion of an urban area. 

According to the committee that produced the report, transit agencies could play a significant role in an emergency evacuation, particularly in transporting carless and special needs populations, but few urban areas have planned for a major disaster and evacuation that could involve multiple jurisdictions or multiple states in a region, or have focused on the role of transit and other public transportation providers in such an incident.  The report offers recommendations for making transit a full partner in emergency evacuation plans and operations, while cautioning emergency managers, elected officials, and the general public to be realistic in their expectations, particularly in a no-notice incident that occurs during a peak service period.

A report summary and press release are available online.  Also available online is an addendum to Appendix C of the report, which provides the detailed assessment of transit's role in the publicly available emergency response and evacuations plans of thirty-three urbanized areas and related states.

A summary of the report published in the November-December 2008 issue of the TR News is available online.