© Association for European Transport and contributors 2010 1 SIGNAL SETTING AND PATHS DESIGN FOR ROAD SUPPLY MANAGEMENT IN EVACUATION CONDITIONS Filippo A. Marcianò, Giuseppe Musolino Antonio Polimeni, Agata Quattrone, Antonino Vitetta Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria Dept. of Computer Science, Mathematics, Electronics and Transportation alessandro.marciano@unirc.it , giuseppe.musolino@unirc.it antonio.polimeni@unirc.it , agata.quattrone@unirc.it , vitetta@unirc.it Abstract In this paper a system of models for signal setting and paths design in evacuation conditions is proposed. The system of models is developed in order to respond to the necessity to integrate the design models present in literature with traffic assignment models, taking into account the effects of variation of supply and demand in terms of the signal setting and path choice. 1 INTRODUCTION Transportation systems analysis and planning in emergency conditions implies the necessity to tackle several issues. Among the others, the design of traffic signals in junctions and the design of paths for emergency vehicles (e.g. ambulances, civil protection vehicles, ....) on a road transportation network have become increasingly relevant. Nowadays signal setting is considered an effective strategy to increase network capacity and to mitigate congestion phenomena. Current signal setting design models and procedures do not provide solutions that take into account users behaviour at path choice level in response to system modifications. Few papers on signal setting design models present in literature take into account users behaviour in response to signal setting parameters modifications. Moreover, there are no specifications for road transport systems in evacuation conditions: signal plans are empirically defined or are defined by means of methods originally concieved to operate in ordinary conditions. Path design of emergency vehicles ranges from the design of a single path to the design of a paths chain (routes design). Route design, commonly named Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), is present in literature but few papers present design models taking into account congested networks. Generally speaking, models and methods of literature seem not able to face the VRP in emergency conditions where the assumptions of stationariety do not hold, due to the relevant changes arising in supply and demand within the reference period. The above changes affect the path choice dimension and, therefore, the vehicle routing one, as a vehicle route is the result of a combination of different paths. From the above considerations, it emerged the necessity to integrate the design models present in literature with traffic assignment models, in order to take into account the effects of variation of supply and demand into the vehicle routing definition.