Deborah Matherly

Transportation and Emergency Management Tool Kit for Communications with Vulnerable Populations

Communication with vulnerable populations about transportation in emergency situations contains serious gaps. Earlier case studies notwithstanding, the lessons of Hurricane Katrina provided a major impetus to legislation, studies, and action. Much legislation advises that community-based organizations should be worked with to bridge the gaps, but little guidance is given. TCRP funded an effort to create such a tool kit for transportation and emergency managers. The study culminates in spring 2011; this paper presents interim findings from a literature review and interviews. Transportation agencies are not in charge of communication with vulnerable populations during emergencies; emergency management agencies are in charge, but they may delegate such communication. However, transportation, public health, public information, and other agencies have significant community outreach capabilities inherent in their nonemergency roles. The most effective ways for transportation and emergency managers to communicate with vulnerable populations about their transportation options before, during, and after an emergency are learning how to identify and tap into existing resources and the networks of public, private, and nonprofit agencies that work with vulnerable populations and learn how to establish and maintain relationships with those entities. Inclusive planning helps everyone. Creation of accommodations for people who cannot hear or understand the primary language also helps tourists and residents who may lose their hearing aids, their hearing, or their composure in an emergency. Likewise, inclusively planning for people with personal mobility challenges helps accommodate people with temporary mobility problems, such as recent surgery or injury or loss of their vehicles during the event.

A Guide to Regional Transportation Planning for Disasters, Emergencies, and Significant Events

This report helps transportation stakeholders in the public and private sectors, as well as non-transportation stakeholders, such as emergency managers and first responders, better understand transportation’s important role in planning for multijurisdictional disasters, emergencies, and major events. The guide sets out foundational planning principles and uses examples, case studies, tips, tools, and suggested strategies to illustrate their implementation. The research (literature review, survey, and interviews) conducted for this project discovered multijurisdictional transportation planning for disasters, emergencies, and significant events taking place in many locations across the country, in many different institutional frameworks. Such planning shares precepts of communication and collaboration, supported by eight basic principles that enable communities to better recover after a major disruption. Effective planning is comprehensive, cooperative, informative, coordinated, inclusive, exercised, flexible, and continuous. These principles connect the many disciplines, levels of government, and private, nonprofit, and public-sector agencies that contribute to a good community plan. They provide a shared vocabulary for a collaborative effort that promises sound preparation, effective response, and rapid recovery.

A Transportation Guide for All-Hazards Emergency Evacuation

This report focuses on the transportation aspects of evacuation, particularly large-scale, multijurisdictional evacuation. It will be useful for transportation managers, planners, and operators in communicating and coordinating with emergency managers in emergency evacuation planning, operations, and reentry; and, complementarily, assist emergency managers in communicating and coordinating with transportation managers, planners, and operators as well as strategic community-based organizations. This Guide follows the basic planning steps of the Federal Emergency Management Agencys Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101. Each chapter parallels one of the six main CPG steps. Each chapter is further subdivided into smaller, discrete tasks, with cross-references to tools, such as templates or checklists, that are shown at the end of each chapter and on the accompanying CD-ROM, CRP-CD-132.

Final Research Report: A Transportation Guide for All-Hazards Emergency Evacuation

This report documents and presents the results of a study to develop a guide on transportation’s role in all-hazard emergency evacuations. Research, interviews, and a field test identified the need for a guide that emergency managers and transportation managers would both find useful. Emergency evacuations regularly occur throughout the United States, due to floods, wildfires, hurricanes, intentional acts and more. Transportation managers and operators across all modes have significant resources, including infrastructure, vehicles, operational strategies and information to support emergency managers and other partners in carrying out an evacuation. Information resources include roadway status and intervention capability through Traffic Management Centers, locations and transportation needs of people with access and functional needs, through bus and paratransit service operations, and relationships with local service providers. Transportation managers and operators need to be full partners with emergency managers in all stages of evacuation planning, from planning and exercises, through response, recovery, and after action plan modifications. Emergency managers need to understand the full range of transportation resources and constraints. Transportation managers need to understand the language, planning cycles, and organization of emergency managers. The guide is designed to accomplish both objectives, following the steps of FEMA Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 101 v2.

Improving the Resilience of Transit Systems Threatened by Natural Disasters, Volume 3: Literature Review and Case Studies

This report provides transit professionals with information and analysis relevant to adapting U.S. public transportation assets and services to climate change impacts. Climate impacts such as heat waves and flooding will hinder transit agencies’ ability to attain a state of good repair and provide reliable and safe service. The report examines anticipated climate impacts on U.S. transit and current climate change adaptation efforts by domestic and foreign transit agencies. It further examines the availability of vulnerability assessment, risk management, and adaptation planning tools as well as their applicability to public transportation agencies.” (p. vii (abstract)) “The report provides examples of adaptation strategies and discusses how transit agencies might incorporate climate change adaptation into their organizational structures and existing activities such as asset management systems, planning, and emergency response.” (p. vii (abstract)) Populations Referenced The report will be a valuable resource for transit agencies and be of interest to regional, state, and federal agencies that oversee, plan, or finance public transportation. Topics Covered A premise of the report is that responsible risk management calls for reducing vulnerability and improving resilience of transit assets and services to the impacts of climate change. To support that premise the report provides:  Synthesis of literature related to climate change, adaptation, and transportation having relevance to the transit industry;  Review of anticipated climate change impacts on U.S. transit;  Synthesis of existing vulnerability assessment, risk management, and adaptation planning tools and explains their application to transit agencies;  Discussion of strategies for adapting transit assets and operations to climate change impacts;  Discussion on implementation considerations and how transit agencies can incorporate adaptation strategies into organizational structures and activities; and  Supporting case studies and illustrative examples. Type of Sponsoring Agency or Organization Federal Transit Administration Geographic Distribution National Type of Transit The goal of this report is to increase awareness of the future environmental stressors transit Improving the Resilience of Transit Systems Threatened by Natural Disasters, Volume 3: Literature Review and Case Studies Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. TCRP A-41: Literature Review A-14 Mode(s) assets will encounter as a result of climate change and is intended for use by transit agencies of all sizes and modes. Type of Vulnerability All vulnerabilities are considered. The report provides numerous and diverse examples of the impact upon transit services due to extreme weather including: precipitation, temperature, sea‐ level rise and hurricanes. Goals and Motivations A premise of the report is that “climate change adaptation is essentially responsible risk management” (p.3) and “that adapting to climate change impacts will require interdisciplinary efforts among engineers, planners, frontline maintenance and operation staff, strategic planners, emergency response experts, and others.” (p. 3‐4) This long‐term effort will require not so much doing entirely different things, but doing some of the same things in a different way. These principle beliefs spurred the effort to create a report that provides a useful departure point to help place the transit industry on the track to climate resilience. (p. 4 (not a direct quote but should be cited)) Context The report recognizes that for transit agencies “already challenged by maintenance backlogs on tight budgets, climate change brings additional environmental stressors that deteriorate assets and requires more maintenance and expense.” (p. 5) “The increased frequency of extreme events (such as heat waves and severe storms) will be more challenging to manage than gradual effects such as a steady rise in average temperatures.” (p. 1) Additionally, “transit agencies will face multiple climate stressors with a combined impact on transit assets and services, and these climate stressors will interact with existing factors (such as high percentage of impervious surfaces) to amplify effects.” (p. 32) “Climate impacts on transit assets will hinder agencies’ ability to achieve goals such as attaining a state of good repair and providing reliability and safety, which may then impact ridership. Therefore, climate change adaptation should not be outside the regular purview of transit management. Rather, given that adaptation strategies offer the opportunity to avoid catastrophic losses through cost‐effective preventive measures, the issue falls squarely within the mainstream duties of transit agency management.” (p. 7) Tools The report did not specifically introduce any tools or metrics. Noteworthy Aspects The report noted that the Maryland State Highway Administration has used its asset management system as a climate adaptation tool. “The agency collects climate change data in its Transportation Asset Management Program (TAMP) to better analyze priority assets. Climate‐ related asset data include age, elevation, materials used, design lifetime and stage of life, FEMA flood maps, current and historical performance and conditions, vegetation, soil type, average daily traffic, bridge scour criticality, and length and width of bridges.” (p. 85‐86) The report provides a case study of the Transport for London as an agency also using their asset management system as an adaptation tool. The report provide four case studies of the following transit agencies:  New York MTA – Partnering and Assessing Impacts  Mobile, Alabama ‐ Developing a Criticality Assessment  Los Angeles County MTA – Initiating a Vulnerably Assessment as Part of a Broader Sustainability Framework  Transport for London – Incorporating Adaptation into Asset Management Systems Captivating Value “... climate stressors will interact with existing factors (such as high percentage of impervious surfaces) to amplify effects.” (p. 31) Decision Question The research document was written to encourage transit agencies to understand that climate change adaptation is essentially responsible risk management and that adapting to climate change is a necessary objective. Decision Maker Transit agency leadership Improving the Resilience of Transit Systems Threatened by Natural Disasters, Volume 3: Literature Review and Case Studies Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. TCRP A-41: Literature Review A-15 Relevance To assist transit agencies, the report recommends taking a risk management approach noting that risk assessment tools developed by governments and non‐profits offer guidance on how to prioritize climate risks by assessing the likelihood of occurrence and the magnitude of consequence. “Taking a risk management approach mitigates risk without expensively over‐ engineering assets.” (p. 2) The report further provides examples of adaptation strategies and discusses how transit agencies might incorporate climate change adaptation into their organizational structures and existing activities. For instance:  “Following the August 2007 flood, as well as other less severe floods, New York MTA raised many of its sidewalk level ventilation grates so that water could not enter from flooded sidewalks. New York held a design competition to incorporate the vents into street furniture.” (p. 66)  “Kansas City’s new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System has 30 stations with rain gardens in bump‐outs designed to collect and filter stormwater runoff from roads and sidewalks (see Figure 4‐6). This reduces flooding, erosion, and the entrance of pollutants in rivers and streams. The BRT system also features a pervious concrete parking lot so that stormwater can seep into the ground, and shade trees that capture rain water.” (p. 70)  “Portland’s TriMet noted a significant increase in slow orders due to high heat over a period of three years. Recognizing the inconvenience to customers, TriMet implemented a concerted set of strategies with an ultimate goal of no slow orders. TriMet identified areas with frequent rail buckling, many of which were adjacent to curves or in direct sunlight. The Maintenance of Way division developed expansion joints and installed them by breaking the continuously welded rail in eight to nine key areas and applying the joints. The joints allow for one and a half to two inches of relief, permitting the rail to expand.” (p. 75)  “The Washington State DOT adopted an agency‐wide policy in 2010 that requires climate change analyses—both mitigation and adaptation—to be included in all WSDOT environmental impact statements performed under the State Environmental Policy Act.” (p. 94) The report noted that “in recent years, multiple governmental entities have begun to assess climate change impacts on infrastructure and to develop potential responses using closely related vulnerability, risk, and adaptation assessment frameworks and tools. The report draws out the elements of the frameworks that are most relevant to public transportation agencies and noted that the frameworks share a general approach: develop or gather climate projections, establish how those climate changes will impact assets, determine the severity of the impacts, and develop measures to address the high‐risk impacts.” (p.45) The report identified the following adaptation assessment guidebooks as being particularly relevant:  New York Climate Adaptation Assessment Guidebook http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749‐6632.2010.05324.x/pdf  Federal Highway Administration Conceptual Model Assessing Vulnerability and Risk of Climate Change Effects on Transportation Infrastructure http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep/climate/conceptual_model62410.htm  University of Washington Center for Science in the Earth System (Climate Impacts Group)

A Guide for Public Transportation Pandemic Planning and Response

A pandemic can be described as a global disease outbreak. Addressing decision-making challenges in pandemic response in the transportation context is a multi-dimensional task, involving not only transportation/transit organizations, but health organizations, emergency management agencies, and communications outlets as well. This guide is designed to outline broad guidance on dealing with preparedness planning for pandemics and other infectious diseases such as seasonal flu. It provides information, tools, tips, and guidance on where to find up-to-date recommendations from federal agencies and other resources, prior to and during a pandemic. While primarily intended for small urban and rural transit organizations, this guide can be used by all types and sizes of transportation agencies and organizations with different levels of preparedness for pandemics.

Using Pictograms to Make Transit Easier to Navigate for Customers with Communication Barriers

This is an evidence-based report on efforts to determine if pictograms – picture-based communication tools that use illustrations with few or no words – can be effective in communicating emergency information and behavioral modification in a transit emergency to people with communication challenges. This report distills efforts that have gone into developing and implementing pictograms in a variety of settings, including transit, transportation, health, manufacturing, and hospitality. It also analyzes a body of primary research from interviews with bus drivers and operators who identified critical messages; experts who work with or serve people with communication challenges; and end users, passengers with communication challenges. The end users included people who were native English-speakers; who spoke little or no English; people who were deaf or hard of hearing; people with cognitive, sensory, or physical disabilities; people who were over the age of 65; and people who were new to the transit system. Bus transit was selected to fit the limited scope of this study, although the conclusions reached can have applicability to other transit modes as well. Four transit agencies and their partner community service providers conducted pilot tests inside parked buses to assess a set of 10 original pictograms designed to capture the drivers’ messages. The research proves that pictograms can be effective, but it also suggests that substantial study is yet to be done to identify universal images that would convey the messages transit drivers consider most important.

Strategic Approaches at the Corridor and Network Level to Minimize Disruption from the Renewal Process

This report documents and presents the results of a study to develop a software tool capable of evaluating the strategic impact at the regional or large corridor level of constructing renewal projects and programs. Existing work zone related software and evaluation tools were reviewed and the best aspects were incorporated in the development of the WISE (Work zone Impact and Strategy Estimator) Tool. WISE has the capability to evaluate the regional impact of various strategies such as day/night operations, innovative contracting, fast construction techniques, advanced maintenance of traffic plans and public information programs. WISE evaluates the renewal projects at both the planning and the operation level. When used as a planning tool WISE develops an optimized renewal programming schedule that minimizes delays to the public and agency cost. When used at the operational level it evaluates the impact of individual strategies at the project level; the results can then be used as part of an iterative procedure with the planning analysis. The WISE tool does not require the use of proprietary software and builds on the existing travel demand software used by State agencies and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs).

WISE Software Users Guide

This publication explains how to use the Work Zone Impact and Strategy Estimator (WISE), a decision support software system designed to help evaluate the impact of work zones and determine strategies to reduce those impacts. The software has been developed so that the level of effort in conducting analysis is minimal. WISE is envisioned to be used by agencies to adhere to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Work Zone Safety and Mobility Rule. WISE GUI (graphical user interface) is the link between the key WISE tools and metadata within the WISE software package. These key tools consist of the WISE Planning Module, WISE Operation Module, the WISE Analysis Engine, DynusT, and NEXTA. The WISE GUI links these tools using a WorkSpace concept. A single WorkSpace gathers the metadata necessary to define the network, multiple projects, variables, and scheduling data needed to successfully perform an evaluation of a given scenario in the Operation and Planning Modules.