The Traffic Incident Management Enhancement (TIME) Program in Southeastern Wisconsin was created to help agencies in the region better deal with freeway incident related congestion and safety issues. The evaluation of the TIME Program is intended to achieve three goals. The first goal is to evaluate how well the TIME Program enhances the incident management. To determine if TIME is meeting this goal, we are examining TIME's ability to facilitate inter-agency relationships; to enhance the detection, verification, response, and clearance of incidents; to reduce harmful environmental impacts; and to enhance traveler information dissemination. The second goal of the evaluation is to determine to what extent the TIME Program is enhancing freeway safety. This goal is being evaluated by assessing the impact of the TIME Program on the reduction of collisions due to incidents, the safety of personnel responding to incidents, hazardous material management, and medical service response time. The third evaluation goal is to identify TIME's user acceptance characteristics. The users include drivers, emergency respondents, WisDOT employees, and the general public in Southeastern Wisconsin. (A*)
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