Benefits of ITS in Incident Management

Anyone living or working in a major urban agglomeration will be familiar with traffic congestion. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are expected to add considerable productivity to existing transportation infrastructure and, therefore, to help reduce congestion in urban areas and/or the need for more physical infrastructure in the face of increased traffic.

Non-recurrent congestion from traffic accidents and other incidents is a major component of the overall problem. In view of pending deployment of new technologies and potential synergies, incident management programs designed to mitigate non-recurrent congestion must be linked to Intelligent Transportation Systems. While the number of incident management programs is increasing, building a mandate and obtaining sufficient funding is hampered by the inability to satisfactorily quantify the benefits expected from such programs or from the application of ITS technology in such programs.

Gerard Maas, together with Mark Maggio, Hadi Shafie and Roger Stough of the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, has quantified benefits of current and future ITS technology deployment in Incident Management in Northern Virginia. The research, conducted for the Virginia Department of Transportation, used a combination of expert opinion, field research and simulation modeling to estimate benefits of promising ITS applications in incident management. The incident impact analysis model [IMPACT] developed for the FWHA by the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, was tested, adapted and applied in the context of incident management in Northern Virginia, the Virginia portion of the U.S. National Capital region.

Estimates were generated for several current and future ITS-enhanced incident management scenarios. These indicate a 35% reduction in annual delays due to incidents has already been achieved by the existing incident management program, with associated monetary cost-savings of approximately $14.5 million per annum. Current delays may be reduced an additional 21-46 percent through the deployment of ITS applications, with associated additional savings of $6-$12.5 million annually. The approach used may be adopted by transportation agencies to better describe and quantify benefits of current and future incident management scenarios, on a regional basis.

Background Materials

Estimating Benefits of ITS Technology in Incident Management: The Case of Northern Virginia. Paper by Maas, Gerard C., presented at the 77th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 11-15, 1998, Washington, D.C.(Read Only).

Incident Management and Intelligent Transportation Systems Technology: Estimating Benefits for Northern Virginia. Paper by Maas, Gerard C., Mark Maggio, Hadi Shafie, and Roger Stough, presented at the 1998 Annual Meeting of The Intelligent Transportation Society of America May 4-7, 1998, Detroit, Michigan.(Read Only).

Maas, Gerard C., Incident Management and Intelligent Transportation Systems Technology: Estimating Benefits for Northern Virginia , in: Stough, Roger R. (Ed.), Intelligent Transport Systems: Cases and Policies, 2001, pp. 207-224 (Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham/Northhampton)

Additional information and materials on this and related topics available from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, the Transportation Research Board, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, and the Intelligent Transportation Society of Virginia. In addition, see Ertico and the EC's Directorate General for Energy and Transport.

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