Appendix - Traffic Management

Problem: In a major disaster, we should expect to not have functioning traffic lights (electric power failure but damage to individual lights) plus having damage to major streets that requires detours.

Misleading experience: In the Loma Prieta earthquake, most of Palo Alto had electrical power restored by the next morning and only trivial damage to the local road network. Consequently, we didn't experience the chaos from this problem.

In a full fledged disaster, treating each intersection with a non-functioning traffic light as an all-way stop (as specified by California Vehicle Code) will not suffice - the cumulative delays will be overwhelming.

I believe that professional emergency responders are overly optimistic about clearing enough traffic off the roads to allow emergency responders to get through - There will be a massive number of people trying to get home and reunite with their families.

Additionally, the need for traffic control extends for days. If you have lost a significant portion of your major routes, the remaining ones are going to needed to move relief supplies and personnel into the areas. Remember that you can lose streets to many causes: damaged bridges/overpasses affect both the crossing road and the one being crossed, building collapse onto streets, broken water mains eroding streets, liquifaction, landslides, ...

• Restricted routes for emergency vehicles and relief supplies: control access as well as direct traffic
• Congestion relief on unrestricted streets to keep emergency vehicles from being delayed

• Initial planning to discover parameters - actual plan after disaster imposes constraints
• Deploy resources as available and as needed - the specifics of the disaster will determine the balance of resources needed and available for traffic control

• Labor - massive amount - exhausting work
• Instruction
• Safety vests: Bicycle or jogger vests (previously hunter's vests)
• Hand illuminators: reflectors, colored rags,...
• Materials to create "Safety Island"
  • Problem:
    • Normal lane configurations don't provide for a human traffic director.
    • In many places, the lane markings influence vehicles to pass too close to the person directing traffic
    • The "respect" that drivers show for a police officer directing traffic cannot be expected when it is a non-uniformed person.
  • Solution: created a safety zone through a combination of visual effects and physical obstacles
    • Visual effects:
      • Cones, e.g., soccer cones (with weight added to keep them in place)
    • Physical obstacles:
      • Sandbags: In the Agnes Flood (1972), we had a ready supply of filled sandbags (the waters quickly receded). A circle created by intermittent sandbags created a combination physical obstacle and visual effect. Two layers of sandbags were a significant barrier.