Using the inspection summary data (24-1 reports) from SHA for years 2006 to 2010 and inspection and violation files of Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) for the same years, the Maryland State Police (MSP) and Maryland Transportation Authority Police (MdTAP) roadside inspections were evaluated. The comparison with peer states and the national trend found that the roadside inspections of Maryland are effective. Specifically, Maryland conducted more inspections than many other states in terms of the absolute number of inspections and the number of inspections normalized by population and VMT. In addition, reduction in violations in Maryland was noticeable during these study years, a larger drop than the national average. This trend analysis suggests that population of safe trucks in Maryland has been increasing gradually, at rates higher than the national averages. This population of safe trucks may be the result of the effectiveness of prior inspection programs in the state and nationally. The Integer Programming resource allocation model successfully reallocated existing resources in a way to maximize benefits from avoided crashes. The modelling findings suggest that the current level of inspections, i.e. without resource reallocation, are quite effective and generate significant benefits to Maryland citizens. With resource reallocation, the benefits would increase significantly. Depending on scenarios, the percentage increase of additional benefits gained by resource reallocation ranges between 14.58% and 28.18% for the MSP roadside inspection program, and between 9.01% and 22.62% for the MdTAP roadside inspection program. A budget increase scenario was also considered. A budget increase of 10% using current inspection capacity, and assuming a 40% crash reduction coefficient, would result in MSP and MdTAP increasing benefits by 2.22% and 7.23% respectively. At the disaggregated level, the model recommends TWIS to conduct more level I and level II inspections, and fewer level III inspections. On the other hand, for MdTAP and MSP Roving County, an increase in level III inspections would have a significant impact on capturing potentially dangerous drivers who avoid fixed inspection locations on purpose. (Author/publisher)
Abstract