In order to improve traffic incident management in the Greater Stockholm area a Highway Helpers project started in March 1996. Since the summer of 1998, four vehicles have been in operation during rush hours: two emergency trucks, a heavy tow-away truck and a police motorcycle. They operate along all major roads, both state roads and municipal roads and streets in order to deal with incidents. The Highway Helpers are dispatched by the SNRA Traffic Management Centre (TMC). The Highway Helpers project also incorporates interesting ITS applications; onboard vehicle computers, vehicle position systems by GPS, digital data communication (including video pictures from the vehicles to TMC) and an advanced incident data base at the TMC. The results have been very positive. The Highway Helpers have been alerted to a total of more than 8,000 incidents by the end of 1998. The number of incidents managed per day has increased steadily as improvements have been made in the system of receiving alerts. The socio-economic pay off time is short, a little more than one month. The Highway Helpers have helped the TMC to come into closer contact with "real traffic". (A*)
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