Regional Traffic Incident Management Programs

The purpose of this document is to assist organizations and their leaders in implementing and sustaining regional traffic incident management programs, both by examining some successful models, and by considering some of the lessons learned by early implementers. There is some form of incident management activity in most major and many mid-sized urban areas. Typically this involves each agency carrying out its own responsibilities, with primarily working-level and middle-management administrative teams to provide coordination with the other agencies who are also involved in their own aspects of managing incidents. Such a situation not only achieves less than the full potential benefit, but also leaves open many risks for failure within individual agencies or on a broader scale. The objective of this document is to present a framework for developing what is missing in almost every urban area—a formal multiagency traffic incident management program, with endorsement by, participation from, and coordination by senior agency management, and which includes all of the participating agencies. Formalizing the incident management effort—turning it into an incident management program—involves such steps as developing a written and endorsed strategy and a plan to implement the strategy; identifying and building support from a full complement of stakeholders and with the public; gaining support and ongoing participation in program direction from agency senior executives; documenting the respective roles and responsibilities of participants; establishing program goals and objectives and evaluating performance on these; establishing incident management as a major mission within and between the participating agencies; and “mainstreaming” of funding for incident management into the traditional transportation planning process.

The objective of this document is to present a framework for developing a formal multiagency traffic incident management program, with endorsement by, participation from, and coordination by senior agency management and which includes all of the participating agencies. This document begins by presenting the case for incident management, describing the extent of the impact of incidents in the United States and how this impact occurs. It then discusses goals, objectives, and potential benefits of formal incident management programs.

Intended to assist agencies responsible for incident management activities on public roadways to improve their programs and operations.Organized into three major sections: Introduction to incident management; organizing, planning, designing and implementing an incident management program; operational and technical approaches to improving the incident management process.

"The original edition of this 'Traffic Incident Management Systems' (TIMS) report was released in 2008 as part of a cooperative agreement between the UFSA and the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA) at Oklahoma State University (OSU). The project was funded by the DOT Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). This latest 2011 edition of TIMS was developed in response to the release of the 2009 edition of the DOT/FHWA's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD). Changes in the 2009 MUTCD affected the content of the 2008 TIMS report and once again the DOT/ FHWA funded the USFA to work with IFSTA to provide an updated report."--Page 2.

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