The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant social and economic impacts throughout the world. In addition to the health consequences, the impacts on travel behavior have also been sudden and wide ranging. This study describes the drastic changes in human behavior using the analysis of highway volume data as a representation of personal activity and interaction. Same-day traffic volumes for 2019 and 2020 across Florida were analyzed to identify spatial and temporal changes in behavior resulting from the disease or fear of it and statewide directives to limit person-to-person interaction. Compared to similar days in 2019, overall statewide traffic volume dropped by 47.5%. Although decreases were evident across the state, there were also differences between rural and urban areas and between highways and arterials both in terms of the timing and extent. The data and analyses help to demonstrate the early impacts of the pandemic and may be useful for operational and strategic planning of recovery efforts and for dealing with future pandemics.

Emergency response vehicles' (ERVs) travel is risky, as non-ERV drivers are often unsure of the ERV's next maneuver and how to facilitate its movement. An integer linear program (ILP), introduced in this paper, facilitates the ERV's movement through a transportation link. Leveraging vehicle-to-vehicle communications, information is collected about vehicles on a link section. Then, the ILP finds the ERV's fastest intra-link path. To increase safety, the ILP assigns non-ERVs locations as far away from the ERV as possible while avoiding passing and weaving among vehicles. The ILP can be adapted to different ERV sizes, road types, and surrounding conditions. Sensitivity analysis indicated that scenarios with narrower road segments and higher numbers of non-ERVs led to ERV paths with lane changes and higher computation times. When compared with the current practice requiring non-ERVs to move to the nearest road edge when an ERV with lights and sirens is noticed, the proposed formulation improved the ERV speed while reducing the conflicts and confusion experienced by downstream vehicles.