An Evaluation Method of the Capacity of Emergency Response of Freeway System

Emergency response is one of the key factors to affect traffic safety and service level of freeway systems . An evaluation method of the capacity of emergency response provides a scientific basis for building such capacity .This pa-per develops an evaluation system consisting of 21 evaluation indicators .Ten experts are invited to develop a judgment matrix which ranks the importance of these indicators through Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) .Then ,a consistency test is carried out for the judgment matrix and the weight of each evaluation indicator is calculated and determined .The computational model for ranking the capacity of freeway emergency response is then developed by using a fuzzy evaluation method .The membership and ranking score are then calculated through the model .A section of highway freeway in China is tested as an example .Study results show the validity of the evaluation indicators and their weight .It is found that the indicator set and corresponding weights used can reflect the actual capacity of freeway emergency response and it is easy to use as w ell .