The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake occurred on 11 September 2011 and caused extensive tsunami damage along the Pacific coast of Japan. Many citizens used their cars to evacuate from the tsunami. This caused traffic congestion on the roads, preventing smooth evacuation and consequently leading to increased human casualties. This highlighted the dangers of using cars during tsunami evacuation.
The purpose of this study is to verify the hazards of car use during tsunami evacuation and to evaluate the limitation of car use.
The study was conducted in the western part of the old-Kitakamigawa River in Ishinomaki City, where there was significant tsunami inundation damage and traffic congestion has been reported.
A tsunami evacuation simulation of the target area was constructed using the open-source software SUMO.
Questionnaire survey data from the Tsunami Evacuation Joint Study Group of the Japan Association for Earthquake Engineering were used to analyze evacuation behavior such as place of departure and destination, and means of transport, and the results were used in the simulation.
Scenarios were set up by controlling vehicle traffic at intersections and generated traffic volume. The simulation results suggest that traffic control at intersection where congestion is expected, may reduce the risk of evacuation by automobiles. The hazards of car-dependent evacuation were also confirmed, suggesting that the number of vehicles that can be used is extremely limited.

tsunami evacuation; traffic simulation; traffic control