1. Incident Management in Central Arkansas: Current Settings and Proposed Extensions Weihua Xiao Yupo Chan University of Arkansas at Little Rock

2. 2 Traffic Incident Management The cost of total delay in rural and urban areas is estimated by the USDOT to be around $1 trillion per year…Well over half of nonrecurring traffic delay in urban areas and almost 100% in rural areas are attributed to incidents… USDOT estimates that the crashes that result from other incidents make up 14-18% of all crashes (National Conf. On TIM, 2002). Effective incident management can decrease secondary crashes, improve roadway safety and decrease traffic delays.

3. 3 Benefits of Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Programs TIM ProgramBenefits Brooklyn, NY The average time to clear all types of incidents was reduced 66 percent, from 1 ½ hours to 31 minutes. Philadelphia’s Traffic and Incident Management Program Decreased freeway incidents by 40 percent, and reduced freeway closure time by 55 percent. Maryland’s Chesapeake Highway Advisories Routing Traffic program Reported a benefit/cost ratio of 5.6:1 with a savings of 2 million vehicle-hours of delay per year from incident-related congestion. San Antonio’s TransGuide Reduced crashes by 35 percent, and secondary crashes by 30 percent on its urban freeways. Atlanta The maximum time from incident verification to lane clearance was cut from 6 1/4 hours to 1 1/2 hours, resulting in an estimated decrease of 2 million vehicle-hours of delay per year.

4. 4 Time Line of an Incident Duration

5. 5 Incident Management Activities Motorist Assistance Patrol (MAP) –3 vehicles operating on I-30, I-40, I-630, I-430, and I-440 in the urbanized area. –Proposed to provide some coverage of both US 67/167 and I-530, from I- 30 to Dixon Road Towing and Wrecker Service –A rotation list of qualified towing and wrecker services. –Current procedures do not specify a minimum response time. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) –911 calls –Communications upgrades are needed. Traffic Management at Work Zones (Meadors 2002) –Queue detectors –Variable message signs (VMS) and highway advisory radio (HAR) Traveler Information System –511 calls

6. 6 Goals of our Study Assess the negative impact of incidents using simulation technology. Evaluate the overall performance of the incident management program. Identify those factors that increase chances of incidents via data-mining technology. Improve incident detection efficiency, accuracy, and response strategy in general Enhance incident site management strategies to reduce the negative impact of incidents.

7. 7 Study Area

8. 8

9. 9 Major Travel Corridors

10. 10 Implementations Incident Data Analysis and Modeling Incident Occurrence Model –Poisson or Negative binominal? –What factors affect the occurrence of incidents: speed limit, lanes, weather, intersections, etc. Incident Duration Model –Normal distribution? Lognormal distribution? –Parameters? Blocked-lane Model –The relationship between number of blocked lanes and incident characteristics

11. 11 Implementations Simulation Based Decision Support System Evaluate current incident management program. Predict the effects of changes or upgrades.

12. 12 Implementations Enhancement of Incident Detection INDUCTIVE LOOP DETECTORS OTHER DETECTORS VIDEO DETECTORS SONAR DETECTORS RADAR DETECTORS CELL PHONES REMOTE SENSORS 6 5 4 3 2 1 (Mirchandani, 2003)

13. 13 Implementations Enhancement of Incident detection Choose the right location to install the sensors. Efficient incident detection algorithm. Locate the cell phone caller quickly and precisely.

14. 14 Implementations

15. 15 GPS, Remote sensing & GIS Lab Telecommunications and Transportation Lab Virtual Reality Center

16. 16 Incident Data of Arkansas collected from Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) Fatal traffic crashes Interested information –City, County, Weather, Day of Week, Day of Month, Month, Year, Fatalities, Injuries, Lanes, Light Condition, Mile point, Speeding, Speed, Speed limit, Surface Condition, Pavement Type

17. 17 We need more detailed data… Locations of incidents: route, mile post, speed limit, number of lanes, number of blocked lanes, horizontal grade, vertical grade, traffic volume, etc. Incident response: response time, incident duration, etc.

18. 18 Summary negative consequences are by no means negligible in small and medium communities an incident management plan that is articulated with an ITS architecture. analysis and modeling of historical incident data the right intersections to install incident-detection devices incident-generation module in the incident-management simulation software ITS metaLAB with close cooperation with other regional stakeholders a case study for other communities of similar population size and structure

19. 19 Thank you! Questions and Comments