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Emergency evacuation plans are often developed under the assumption that evacuees will use wayfinding strategies such as taking the shortest distance route to their nearest exit. The purpose of this paper is to analyze empirical data from a wildfire evacuation analyzed to determine whether evacuees took a shortest distance route to their nearest exit and to identify any alternate wayfinding strategies that they may have used.

The wildfire evacuation analysis presented in this paper is the outcome of a natural experiment. A post-fire online survey was conducted, which included an interactive map interface that allowed evacuees to identify the route that they took. The survey results were integrated with several additional data sets using a GIS. Network analysis was used to compare the routes selected by evacuees to their shortest distance routes, and statistical hypothesis testing was employed to identify the wayfinding strategies that may have been used.

The network analysis revealed that 31 percent of evacuees took a shortest distance route to their nearest exit. Hypothesis testing showed that evacuees selected routes that had significantly longer distances and travel times than the shortest distance routes, and indicated that factors such as the downhill slope percentage of routes and the elevation of exits may have impacted the wayfinding process.

This research is best regarded as a spatiotemporal snapshot of wayfinding behavior during a single wildfire evacuation, but could inspire additional research to establish more generalizable results.

This research may help emergency managers develop more effective wildfire evacuation plans.

This research presents an analysis of an original data set that contributes to the broader body of scientific knowledge on wayfinding and spatial behavior during emergency evacuations.

The purpose of this paper was to compare the accuracy of linking crimes using geographical proximity between three distance measures: Euclidean (distance measured by the length of a straight line between two locations), Manhattan (distance obtained by summing north-south distance and east-west distance) and the shortest route distances.

A total of 194 cases committed by 97 serial residential burglars in Aomori Prefecture in Japan between 2004 and 2015 were used in the present study. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to compare linked (two offenses committed by the same offender) and unlinked (two offenses committed by different offenders) pairs for each distance measure. Discrimination accuracy between linked and unlinked crime pairs was evaluated using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC).

The Mann–Whitney U test showed that the distances of the linked pairs were significantly shorter than those of the unlinked pairs for all distance measures. Comparison of the AUCs showed that the shortest route distance achieved significantly higher accuracy compared with the Euclidean distance, whereas there was no significant difference between the Euclidean and the Manhattan distance or between the Manhattan and the shortest route distance. These findings give partial support to the idea that distance measures taking the impact of environmental factors into consideration might be able to identify a crime series more accurately than Euclidean distances.

Although the results suggested a difference between the Euclidean and the shortest route distance, it was small, and all distance measures resulted in outstanding AUC values, probably because of the ceiling effects. Further investigation that makes the same comparison in a narrower area is needed to avoid this potential inflation of discrimination accuracy.

The shortest route distance might contribute to improving the accuracy of crime linkage based on geographical proximity. However, further investigation is needed to recommend using the shortest route distance in practice. Given that the targeted area in the present study was relatively large, the findings may contribute especially to improve the accuracy of proactive comparative case analysis for estimating the whole picture of the distribution of serial crimes in the region by selecting more effective distance measure.

Implications to improve the accuracy in linking crimes may contribute to assisting crime investigations and the earlier arrest of offenders.

The results of the present study provide an initial indication of the efficacy of using distance measures taking environmental factors into account.

Order picking, the assembly of a customer’s order from items in storage, is an essential link in the supply chain and is the major cost component of warehousing. The critical issue is to simultaneously reduce the cost and increase the speed of the order picking activity. The main objectives are to: evaluate various routeing policies in a random storage environment; evaluate the impact of warehouse shape and pick‐up/drop‐off location; and examine the interaction of the routeing policies, warehouse shape, and pick‐up/drop‐off location under different pick list sizes. The experimental results clearly indicate that the optimal routeing procedure generates significantly shorter routes than heuristic methods. The composite and largest gap routeing policies are, however, significantly better than simpler heuristic procedures. Further testing, in addition, indicates that the shape of the warehouse and the location of the pick‐up/drop‐off point can affect the picking efficiency.

Using a real-time road network combined with historical traffic data for Al-Salt city, the paper aims to propose a new federated genetic algorithm (GA)-based optimization technique to solve the dynamic vehicle routing problem. Using a GA solver, the estimated routing time for 300 chromosomes (routes) was the shortest and most efficient over 30 generations.

In transportation systems, the objective of route planning techniques has been revised from focusing on road directors to road users. As a result, the new transportation systems use advanced technologies to support drivers and provide them with the road information they need and the services they require to reduce traffic congestion and improve routing problems. In recent decades, numerous studies have been conducted on how to find an efficient and suitable route for vehicles, known as the vehicle routing problem (VRP). To identify the best route, VRP uses real-time information-acquired geographical information systems (GIS) tools.

This study aims to develop a route planning tool using ArcGIS network analyst to enhance both cost and service quality measures, taking into account several factors to determine the best route based on the users’ preferences.

Furthermore, developing a route planning tool using ArcGIS network analyst to enhance both cost and service quality measures, taking into account several factors to determine the best route based on the users’ preferences. An adaptive genetic algorithm (GA) is used to determine the optimal time route, taking into account factors that affect vehicle arrival times and cause delays. In addition, ArcGIS' Network Analyst tool is used to determine the best route based on the user's preferences using a real-time map.

1.1. Logical Necessity of the Three Dimensions as a Unit of Thought The mathematician does not look kindly on the simple question of why natural space should consist of precisely three dimensions. Instead of giving an answer he assumes a silent smile and shows us a version of space with an infinity of dimensions, as if space were some kind of toy for him to fiddle with to his heart's content.

Deutsche Bahn AG (Deutsche Bahn hereafter) was the former German railroad monopolist until deregulation in 1996. It was a well-known company that operated in worldwide markets for transport and logistics at the time of the case (late 2013). The case “Deutsche Bahn AG: a former monopoly off track?” focuses on the opportunities and challenges faced by Deutsche Bahn with regard to its position in the German individual transportation market. On the one hand, Deutsche Bahn is facing external problems. Increasing competition in short- and long-distance traffic threatens its strong business position. The competition emerged from a growing long-distance bus market and the increase in private railway companies. During the last few years before 2013, Deutsche Bahn has lost several public tenders for individual passenger travel in Germany. On the other hand, Deutsche Bahn has internal problems that endanger its image as a service company. A lack of service quality and the technical condition of its trains has led to rising numbers of customer complaints. In addition, staffing and punctuality problems have exacerbated the situation. One of the main technical issues the company faces is that ordered trains have not been delivered on time. Given the focus on Deutsche Bahn’s domestic challenges, its international business activities are tackled only briefly. While regulatory and political events have an impact on Deutsche Bahn, these are not the main subjects of the case.

This case has been written from public sources. Consequently, no company release is provided. None of the information has been disguised in any way.

The case is intended for use in a 90-minute strategic management class attended by students at the end of their undergraduate studies or in postgraduate study. Although the case relates to issues in strategic management, the special regulatory environment and some of the issues covered could make the case a useful complement in other classes as well, such as classes in supply chain management (procurement) or the management of public companies. Therefore, students should have basic knowledge in developing strategies, management, marketing, human resource management, and finance.

Strategic Analysis and Strategic Management, Railroad Logistics, Deregulation of a former Monopoly, Stakeholder Theory.

This chapter examines the issues of the low-cost carriers (LCCs) in Japan and their impact on the domestic and international aviation markets. “Genuine” LCCs, such as Peach Aviation and Jetstar Japan, began their operations in 2012 to follow the new movement of low-cost and low-fare airlines, which are different from the “new emerging” airlines, such as Skymark and AIRDO that appeared in the late 1990s. We discuss the recent history of LCCs in Japan, the characteristics of each LCC, the competitiveness of the high-speed railway in the domestic market, the impact of open sky policies, and the contribution of inbound foreign visitors to the international passenger volume increase. As LCCs in Japan have recently begun operations, they can continue to play a significant role in the Japanese aviation market.

Order picking, the activity by which a number of goods are retrieved from a warehousing system to satisfy a number of customer orders, is an essential link in the supply chain and is the major cost component of warehousing. The critical issue is to simultaneously reduce the cost and increase the speed of the order picking activity. The main objectives of this paper are: evaluate various routing heuristics and an optimal routine in a volume‐based and random storage environment; compare the performance of volume‐based storage to random storage; and examine the impact of travel speed and picking rates on routing and storage policy performance. The experimental results show the solution gap between routing heuristics and optimal routing is highly dependent on the travel speed and picking rate, the storage policy, and the size of the pick list. In addition, volume‐based storage produced significant savings over random storage, but again these savings are dependent on the travel speed and picking rate.

The development of urban underground complexes (UUCs) has great positive significance for improving urban safety. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the key factors of the people's behavior of evacuation route selection (BERS) for fire emergencies and UUCs’ development. This study aims to find out the factors affecting people's BERS in the evacuation process of UUCs.

This study aims to find out the factors affecting people's BERS in the evacuation process of UUCs. To achieve this goal, the authors conducted a field experiment in F City. Furthermore, the people's BERS are obtained by using a structural equation model and compared with the field test results.

The authors found that the key factors for people's BERS are lighting conditions, route distance, flow direction guidance and indication. The results of this study contribute to the safety field by providing key factors for fire emergencies. It can also be used to improve fire safety management, evacuation strategies and assist in the development of intelligent evacuation systems.

The results of this study contribute to the safety field by providing key factors for fire emergencies. It can also be used to improve fire safety management, evacuation strategies and assist in the development of intelligent evacuation systems.