It is well understood that incidents contribute to a substantial proportion of the delay on the nation's highways and adversely affect the safety of our transportation network. As a proactive means of addressing these critical issues, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has initiated an innovative incident management program outside of a major urban area. The Region 2 Incident Response (IR) Program is a tool used to assist disabled vehicles along freeway and highway corridors. The work accomplished by the IR team helps relieve non-recurrent congestion through quick incident detection, verification, response, and removal/clean up. In addition, the IR team can notify the proper authorities, through the computer aided dispatch (CAD) center, of other types of roadway problems which currently or will prospectively impact traffic flow. The Region 2 IR program has evolved over the past six years and is the first rural incident management program in the state. The IR program is administrated by ODOT in cooperation with the Oregon State Police and many other local agencies. This paper summarizes the results of an analysis of this program for two representative corridors along Interstate 5 and Highway 18 during the period 1995 - 2000. The research concentrated on two corridors using archived CAD data for Highway 18 (McMinnville to Lincoln City) and Interstate 5 within the Lane County limits in the Eugene area. The methodology consisted of a statistical analysis of incident using data from two distinct phases since the IR program's inception. This analysis has characterized the benefits of the IR program, which are contrasted with the costs of administrating and operating the program. Quantitative comparison of potential benefits has included consideration of possible reductions in accidents, traffic congestion, pollution and requirements for ODOT and law enforcement resources. The evaluation of these benefits aims to provide threshold levels of inputs (e.g., traffic volumes, number of incidents, etc.) that would indicate that an IR program should be created or expanded for a particular route. In addition, qualitative benefits derived as a result of the IR program were also identified. Although these benefits are not directly measurable, their presence increases the value of the IR program making it more cost effective than that actually presented.
Abstract