Mill Valley Fire Preparedness Subject Of Google Research Study

MILL VALLEY, CA — A Mill Valley official’s query about how data science could help the city avert a Paradise-type catastrophe led to a Google Research project.

The tech behemoth conducted an exhaustive study, the findings of which were published in the prestigious Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives journal under the headline “Simulation pipeline for traffic evacuation in urban areas and emergency traffic management policy improvements through case studies.”

The simulation of an evacuation of the city’s 6,000-plus households trying to escape a potential fire disaster by car was the basis of a study city officials believe the study could save lives.

The study simulated an evacuation using home locations and road capacities under various conditions, including speed of notification, the timing of departure, and other variables.

Councilmember John McCauley, whose contacts to Google about using tech as a fire preparedness tool precipitated the study, presented the findings at a March 15 council meeting.

“Based on the research and simulations, the Google Research Group further studied potential ways to improve the speed of an evacuation plan,” city officials said in a statement.

City officials reviewed the document before publication.

“The team’s review of Google’s simulation provided two critical insights,” city officials said.

“The first being the concept surrounding contraflow traffic (opposite traffic direction) on E. Blithedale Avenue in the event of an emergency, with all inbound and outbound lanes exiting out toward the freeway. The second insight is that each household only utilizes one vehicle to evacuate during an emergency.”

The Google findings led to city staff developing the following routing options:

• Miller Avenue – Two lanes of outbound traffic from Millwood to Willow
• E. Blithedale Avenue – Two lanes of outbound traffic from Roque Moraes to Ashford
• Hamilton Drive- Two-Way traffic with access to HWY 101

The Google Research document can be viewed here.