A UNBC PhD candidate is studying how drivers respond during simulated wildfire evacuations on Highway 97 north of Prince George. The research will help build a traffic model that could help emergency planners understand congestion, travel times and road closures before an evacuation happens.
UNBC researchers are recreating a Highway 97 evacuation to see how local drivers respond
Alireza Noory, a PhD candidate at the University of Northern B.C., is testing how driver behaviour changes during emergency situations such as wildfire evacuations, and hopes the information can help communities better plan in the future.
When a wildfire threatens a community, the decisions drivers make can impact how quickly people reach safety.
The simulation will have participants travel on Highway 97 north of Prince George, first during a regular day, and then during a wildfire evacuation scenario.
Reaction time, speed, acceleration, braking and lane position — as well as other factors — will be measured in both scenarios.
"Using behaviour collected from local drivers can make evacuation forecasts more realistic and help local agencies plan safer, and more effective, evacuation strategies," said Noory.
"This is important, because many current evacuation models rely on general assumptions or data from other communities."
The data collected will be used to calibrate a separate computerized traffic model of Prince George and potentially help city officials figure out how traffic might actually move during an evacuation.
The calibrated model can be used to look at evacuation travel time, congestion, road closures and alternative traffic management strategies before an evacuation happens.
"The results will show how local drivers adjust their behaviour when visibility, urgency, emergency messages and wildfire-related hazards are introduced," said Noory.
"Some people actually intentionally actually reduce their speeds. It was [a] kind of interesting finding for us," he said, of what he's noticed so far.
During the simulation, participants will be driving along a recreated version of Highway 97 north of Prince George, and studied on how they respond during a high-stress situation.
Another tool in the toolbox
According to the province’s evacuation process for Indigenous and local governments, the majority of evacuations occur on roads and highways using personal vehicles and public or private transit.
Areas with limited exit routes are also required to take alternative measures into consideration — like air, rail and marine transport.
Communities are told to plan for the number and geographic distribution of evacuees, capacity of transportation infrastructure and the potential for congestion or bottlenecks.
They are also told to look out for areas vulnerable to damage, availability of fuel supplies, and contingencies for vehicle breakdowns — as well as co-ordinating routes with the appropriate authority.
Williams Lake Mayor Surinderpal Rathor said the more tools communities have, the better, when it comes to emergency scenarios.
"Our community has gone through an evacuation, community-wide, during 2017. It was chaos …big frustration," he said.
"People were scared. They didn’t know what to take, they didn’t know what to leave behind."
Evacuees from the Bald Range fire are pictured at the evacuation centre in Penticton, B.C., on Aug. 8. Williams Lake Mayor Surinderpal Rathor says that people fleeing wildfires often don't know what to take or leave behind.
There’s also frequent newcomers to the community, Rathor added, so the study findings could help new arrivals learn more about what to do.
"Compared to normal driving, there’s 100 per cent [more] people on the highway, you’re a lot more stressed out," he explained.
"You face many more difficulties or obstacles or panic, because you have never seen that much traffic on the highway. So, it will always be good to learn."
Researchers are looking for adult drivers, comprising a range of ages and driving experience, to participate in the project.
