  This research studies how populations depend on road networks for access to
health care during crises or natural disasters. So far, most researchers rather
studied the accessibility of the whole network or the cost of network
disruptions in general, rather than as a function of the accessibility of
specific priority destinations like hospitals. Even short delays in accessing
healthcare can have significant adverse consequences. We carry out a
comprehensive stress test of the entire Austrian road network from this
perspective. We simplify the whole network into one consisting of what we call
accessibility corridors, deleting single corridors to evaluate the change in
accessibility of populations to healthcare. The data created by our stress test
was used to generate an importance ranking of the corridors. The findings
suggest that certain road segments and corridors are orders of magnitude more
important in terms of access to hospitals than the typical one. Our method also
highlights vulnerable municipalities and hospitals who may experience demand
surges as populations are cut off from their usual nearest hospitals. Even
though the skewed importance of some corridors highlights vulnerabilities, they
provide policymakers with a clear agenda.
