Evaluation of incident management strategies and technologies using an integrated traffic/incident management simulation

Kaan M.A. Özbay, Weihua Xiao, Gaurav Jaiswal, Bekir Bartin, Pushkin Kachroo, Melike Baykal-Gursoy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper describes Rutgers Incident Management System (RIMS) software that is developed to evaluate the benefits of various incident management strategies and technologies. This tool can generate incidents and test various response strategies and technologies. South Jersey highway network is used as a test network due to the available historical incident data. The evaluated incident management strategies include the deployment of Variable Message Signs (VMS) to divert traffic during incidents and the use of Freeway Service Patrols (FSPs) for detecting and verifying incidents efficiently. The simulation-based evaluations also include the effect of cellular phone users in the network on the incident detection and verification times. The results show that the studied incident management strategies have positive impacts on reducing incident durations while being cost effective. More specifically, the deployment of VMS for diverting traffic in case of an incident results in a benefit cost ratio of 9.2:1; an additional service unit in freeway patrol results in reduced incident detection and verification time with a corresponding benefit-cost ratio of 3.9:1.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)155-186
Number of pages32
JournalWorld Review of Intermodal Transportation Research
Volume2
Issue number2-3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

Keywords

  • Evaluation
  • Freeway patrol
  • Incident management
  • Simulation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Transportation

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