Abstract
Twenty-three campuses of the California State University (CSU) system have an emergency preparedness plan according to the executive order of CSU Emergency Management Program. CSUS (California State University, Sacramento) also has an evacuation plan for an emergency, but it remains impo1iant to know how long it will take to evacuate entire campus of vehicles during an emergency. The purpose of this research work is to find evacuation time to vacate the entire campus of vehicles during an emergency.
Research and recommendations frori1 the literature on mass evacuation of vehicles during emergencies were useful for this project. All required data were obtained from the City of Sacramento (Department of Transportation) and some information was gathered from the Sacramento State University administration. The CSUS Emergency Evacuation Preparedness Plan was used to calculate the total traffic of vehicles during an evacuation for the north and south exits of campus.
The research work includes analysis of the two main exits of the campus using Highway Capacity Software (HCS) during the morning peak hour condition as well as during a contraflow condition. The adjusted saturation flow rates were used to estimate the required evacuation time through these intersections.
Results indicate that one hour is sufficient to vacate the campus for the north and south intersections. The contraflow condition was recommended to minimize evacuation time during an emergency for both intersections.