Limiting the impact on traffic of non-recurring events such as crashes, traffic stops, or disabled vehicles through effective incident management should be the goal for responders. The arterial incident management study conducted by the Traffic Institute examined what is known about how incidents affect traffic and their potential costs, and shows how they can be handled to minimize their effects. Important issues addressed included: failure to respond in a timely manner and with adequate resources; failure to remove vehicles and debris in a timely fashion; inadequate traffic control at and around the incident; lack of communication to motorists affected by the incident; and limited planning for incident management. This paper concentrates on strategies which address the first issue, inadequate response. (A)
Abstract