Emergency Traffic Management for Minimizing Snowfall Damages - Lessons Learned from Eastern Hokkaido in 2004.

In January and February 2004, severe snowstorms with extraordinarily heavy snowfall and record-breaking winds disrupted road and rail traffic in the eastern part of Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan, paralyzing the region. A record length of national highway was closed, and vehicles were caught in avalanches or otherwise buried in snow on roads. The road administrators conducted rescue operations while removing snow from highways, trying to gradually restore the road traffic. Snow removal operations in such an emergency should address the need for rescue operations and should consider the process of snow removal, road information provision and the like. In restoring the road traffic network, it is desirable to manage the traffic demand and to optimize restoration while taking account of the network's reduced performance. Establishing cooperative relationships between pertinent authorities and residents is also important to reduce damage. This paper discusses a survey of residents' opinions and other studies to summarize the road administrators' responses to the aforementioned heavy snowfalls. It also studies, from experience, how road traffic hindrances occur and how recovery can be achieved under emergency conditions. For the covering abstractsee ITRD E143097.