Chapter 11: Acquiring Data on Travel Behaviour During Emergencies and Exceptional Events

Surveys of the public have been conducted to document and explain evacuation behaviour in a wide range of threatening events during the past half-century. Many of the behaviours are directly applicable to transportation modelling and management: whether people evacuate, when they depart, where they go, the routes they employ and the number of vehicles they use. Data have usually been collected by telephone interview or mailed questionnaires. Traditional survey methods should be supplemented by Internet surveys, traffic counts and GPS tracking. More real-time data collection should be employed to document a wider range of behaviours during a threat more accurately and to better understand the dynamics of evacuation decisions.