Interactive, graphical processing unit-based evaluation of evacuation scenarios at the state scale

In large-scale scenarios, transportation modeling and simulation is severely constrained by simulation time. For example, few real-time simulators scale to evacuation traffic scenarios at the level of an entire state, such as Louisiana (approximately 1 million links) or Florida (2.5 million links). New simulation approaches are needed to overcome severe computational demands of conventional (microscopic or mesoscopic) modeling techniques. Here, a new modeling and execution methodology is explored that holds the potential to provide a tradeoff among the level of behavioral detail, the scale of transportation network, and real-time execution capabilities. A novel, field-based modeling technique and its implementation on graphical processing units are presented. Although additional research with input from domain experts is needed for refining and validating the models, the techniques reported here afford interactive experience at very large scales of multi-million road segments. Illustrative experiments on a few state-scale networks are described based on an implementation of this approach in a software system called GARFIELD. Current modeling capabilities and implementation limitations are described, along with possible use cases and future research.