Emergency Transportation

Response

Office of Operations

21st Century Operations Using 21st Century Technologies

Emergency Transportation

Response Challenges

Disasters can happen anywhere at any time, often without

warning, and come in infinite varieties. Now we must consider terrorist attacks as well as natural disasters and incidents.

Transportation is critical to emergency response. Regardless

of whether transportation facilities are directly affected by

the disaster, transportation is needed to bring responders to

the scene, transport the ill and injured to medical facilities,

and move the public away from potential harm.

To achieve efficient response across the transportation

network, we need information, resources, and well-understood and effective procedures that are rehearsed with other

emergency responders.

What We Have Learned

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) studied several

emergencies, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks and natural

disasters such as Hurricane Floyd. The following common

themes emerged.

All types of security incidents have a transportation

impact.

● The 9/11 attacks affected public transit, commuter rail,

commercial vehicles, and ferries, and resulted in needs

for significant road repairs.

● Anything suspicious near a transportation facility can

result in closures or restrictions.

● Efforts to catch the “D.C. sniper”resulted in massive queues

on interstates in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia.

Few of the surveyed State, local, and regional 

emergency management plans fully integrate 

transportation.

● Fewer than 50 percent include details on media coordination, traveler information, and asset protection

● Only 10 percent address transportation coordination

with the Emergency Operations Center

● Fewer than half specify evacuation routes

● Only two thirds of the State and one third of the municipal

plans include transportation contacts

● Intelligent Transportation Systems applications are generally not discussed in emergency management plans

Traffic impacts occur outside the incident scene

and can become a separate “incident.”

● These take additional scarce resources to manage.

● They can have a major affect in the region and can

create an additional hazard.

Traffic impacts during recovery may be more 

significant than during response.

In New York City following 9/11:

● It took 3.5 hours to travel a common 22-mile commute

route in the first week following 9/11.

● On 9/26 there was a 4-mile queue to enter Manhattan.

● There were 40 subway service changes in three days.

● Ferry ridership increased 91 percent.

Transportation responders are often not . . .

● Linked fully with emergency managers;

● Trained to work with other responders under the

Incident Command System; or

● Prepared with equipment and knowledge to deal with

terrorist threats.
April 2004

FHWA-OP-04-048

For more information on FHWA Office of Operations activities, visit our web site at

www.fhwa.dot.gov/operations

Future Directions

FHWA is working with transportation agencies and their

partners to improve planning and use of technology in

emergency transportation operations. Eight program areas

are targeted in the areas of planning and technology.

Planning: Better regional and transportation operations planning, with training and exercises

Goal: Emergency management plans need to accurately

reflect how transportation will work, and transportation

agency emergency plans need to reflect how the emergency will be managed. The American Association of State

Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has developed an emergency response plan guide.

● FHWA assessed existing plans and is developing recommended practices.

Planning: More and better relationships, including

new partners and more integration

Goal: Transportation agencies need to have effective

working relationships with other responders, including

police, fire, emergency medical, public health, military, and

intelligence.

● FHWA is sponsoring multimodal, multiagency exercises

around the country to build relationships and test plans.

Technology: Use of smarter and more powerful

tools to support updated procedures

Goal: Agencies need to have tools such as evacuation

models and prepared traffic response scenarios in place

and tested.

● FHWA-developed, next-generation models are being

assessed for how they improve evacuation planning

and conduct.

Technology: Using the Incident Command System

(ICS)—working the way partner responders work

Goal: Agencies need to understand and be ready to work

with other responders at the incident scene through ICS.

● FHWA’s traffic incident management program has introduced ICS to hundreds of transportation practitioners.

Technology: Protecting the information infrastructure

Goal: Agencies need to identify critical information technology resources, assess the risks, and identify and implement countermeasures.

● FHWA is studying how to protect communications 

networks and transportation management centers.

Technology: Implementing information infrastructure on key evacuation routes

Goal: Agencies should prioritize and implement intelligent infrastructure along critical evacuation routes.

● FHWA has suggested deployment levels.

Technology: Interoperable communications

Goal: Understand and implement agency communications systems that are compatible with other modes and

other responders.

● FHWA has sponsored two demonstrations of

voice/data/video interoperability and is working on a

guide describing alternatives.

Sharing experiences, lessons learned, and successful

practices

Goal: Agencies can learn from the experiences of others

that have faced disasters.

● FHWA has created a Web site at

www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/opssecurity