Date of Award

Spring 3-22-2024

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering

Department

Civil Engineering

Committee Chair

Scott Parr

First Committee Member

Brian Wolshon

Second Committee Member

Hongyun Chen

College Dean

James W. Gregory

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate crash rates across four distinct periods—evacuation, re-entry, emergency, and non-emergency—during Hurricanes Matthew (2016), Irma (2017), and Michael (2018). A notable gap in existing research pertains to understanding crash rates during these critical phases of hurricane events. By addressing this gap, this research contributes to a deeper comprehension of evacuation transportation safety. The methodology employed ArcMap to construct an interactive map for data collection, encompassing key variables such as the number of crashes, traffic volumes, duration of each period under analysis, and roadway segment lengths for each hurricane. Evaluating the crash rate per million vehicular miles was a crucial analysis tool and finding of this research, enabling a comprehensive evaluation of segment safety across different periods. Non-emergency periods exhibited crash rates two orders of magnitude higher than those observed during evacuation, re-entry, and emergency periods. While a correlation between non-emergency and emergency period crash rates was apparent, the same could not be concluded for non-emergency and re-entry periods.

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