Planning for Travel Demand during Prolonged Power Outages: Case studies of the Texas Snowstorm and Hurricane Ida in 2021

Monday, September 19: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Location: Great Hall

 

Jiayun Shen

PhD Candidate, Clemson University

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION

Power outages in 2021 were severe, Texas residents experienced up to a week of power outages during the winter, and some parishes in Louisiana suffered power outages for approximately a month after Hurricane Ida. While power outages have a direct impact on transportation operations, they also impact travel demand. This presentation discusses changes in location (e.g., whether to remain in the affected area, changes in origins and destinations), as well as more typical daily activities (e.g., commuting, shopping), revealed through surveys.

Due to power and other utility outages, some residents chose to relocate. In the case of the snowstorm, relocation possibilities included local warming centers/shelters, peers’ homes, and hotels/motels. Evacuation after Hurricane Ida made landfall occurred due to hardships resulting from the lack of utilities. We will discuss how hardships experienced by residents affected their location choices and the similarities and disparities of relocation choices based on residents’ demographics and socio-economic status.

Despite potentially hazardous conditions, participation in daily activities did not cease for all residents. The types of changes in residents’ daily activities included canceling some trips and changing departure times, modes, and durations. For the Texas snowstorm, we will discuss residents’ risk aversion and the tradeoffs between traveling and activity participation. Because of the extended duration of Hurricane Ida’s power outage, we used a longitudinal cross-sectional survey to gather residents' behavioral adaptation and its progression for commuting, childcare activities and obtaining groceries, two weeks, one month, and two months after Hurricane Ida. The discussion will focus on changing trends for travel behaviors associated with these activities.

Power outages are associated with many weather events and natural disasters, and it becomes increasingly important to plan for these disruptive events both from supply and demand perspectives. The discussion provides a contextual understanding of how practitioners and planners could better prepare and plan for such extremely disruptive events in the future from a demand perspective.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Shen is a Ph.D. candidate at Clemson University. He got his bachelor's degree from Rowan University in 2018 and his master's degree from Clemson University in 2020.