October 22, 2020

Daeyeol Chang

Daeyeol Chang, a civil and environmental engineering doctoral student, received second place in the research poster competition at this year’s virtual Missouri Highway Safety and Traffic Conference.

Chang’s research topic was “Taking the Freeway: Inferring Evacuee Route Selection from Survey Data.” This topic strongly related to the conference’s goal of moving Missouri toward safer roads.

“Specifically, my topic dealt with hurricane evacuation modeling for route choice between freeways versus non-freeway routes,” Chang said.

Disasters like floods, tornadoes and hurricanes affect traffic flow for people leaving or emergency crews going on rescue assignments. Chang stated one small road accident could cause a chain reaction and reduce capacity across road networks.

“As an engineer, I am responsible to mitigate adverse effects during emergencies,” Chang said.

The Missouri Highway Safety and Traffic Conference is an annual event which brings together national and local experts in many areas of highway safety, from distracted driving to autonomous vehicles. The Central Missouri chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) sponsored the poster session.

Chang is a member Mizzou ITE and also a member of the Central Missouri ITE chapter.