Travel route planning method to avoid epidemic hot-spots in the post-epidemic era

Abstract

The Chinese government adhered to the “dynamic clearance” epidemic prevention strategy from August 2021 to December 7, 2022, during the post-epidemic era (this study started in March 2022 and ended in September 2022). People are gradually resuming their daily routines, and demand for travel is rising again. Nonetheless, the epidemic occasionally breaks out on a smaller scale, causing social concern. As a social reaction, the essential issue is how to avoid COVID-19 hot-spots effectively by offering secure travel options for local residents who tend to travel privately. Two travel route planning models are proposed to avoid COVID-19 hot-spots based on the invalid road sections which are affected by epidemic. Specifically, the static model aims at generating the shortest travel distance after detours, with the constraint of avoiding COVID-19 hot-spots; the dynamic model takes real-time data into account, which includes epidemic risk levels, road grades, and real-time traffic information on road selection. Shenzhen, China, is illustrated as an example of the research area in this paper. To assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the suggested approaches, data regarding the road network, the prevalence of epidemics, and traffic congestion are collected. The experimental results demonstrate that 1) the proposed two route planning models can effectively bypass areas with high levels of epidemic risk. 2) The static route planning model increases the travel distance by 12.24% and 13.03%, while the dynamic route planning model increases the travel distance by 24.33% and 27.69% compared with the conventional shortest route, given the same origin and destination and the same impact radii of the COVID-19 hot-spots (300 and 500 m respectively). When taking detour routes to avoid COVID-19 hot-spots, the average increase in trip distance does not surpass 50%, which is acceptable psychologically for travelers. 3) The static travel route planning model is suitable for the severe epidemic situation for it can strictly avoid the epidemic hot-spots; The dynamic travel route planning model is applicable to the situation where the epidemic situation is relatively mild. Ultimately, the route planning models can be utilized to develop a framework to provide travelers with detour options, which would make a practical difference to ensure travelers’ safety during traveling and contribute to preventing the spread of the epidemic.

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