In this paper,  the evacuation characteristics of occupants in super- long road tunnels in the case of fires were analyzed and the corresponding safety criteria for evacuations were given.  Numerical simulation studies were conducted on the evacuation of occupants under conditions of normal traffics and local jams respectively in a tunnel by taking its structure and the vehicles flows into consideration.  Influences of various fire locations,  spacing between and widths of transverse passageways were considered.  Results show that the available and the required safe evacuation time (ASET and RSET,  respectively) are both functions of positions in the longitudinal direction of the tunnel,  which is different from the case in building evacuations.  Peaks occur on the time curves of occupant evacuations at the gate of each transverse passageway,  which is mainly caused by the aggregating and waiting behaviors at each gate.  When a local traffic jam occurs,  the RSET for the region near the gate of transverse passageways is dramatically enhanced,  the same are the hazards.  And the performance-based fire protection designs for occupant evacuations in super-long tunnels should consider the influences of fire source locations on occupant loads and the ASET at evacuation gates comprehensively.  The investigation for the performance- based fire protection designs for the occupant evacuations in super-long road tunnels could provide the valuable references for the optimization designing of the safety evacuation establishments for the road tunnels.