to and quick clearance of minor incidents should prevent secondary crashes and reduce congestion.”36 During two, three-month periods (October through December 2010, and April through June 2011), roadway clearance times37 were reduced by 30 percent and incident clearance times were reduced by 50 percent.38 There were 4,795 crashes reported on the freeway system during the first three months and 4,366 during the second—a reduction of 9 percent (429 crashes).39
10. Time is of the essence. To the degree that primary traffic incidents are resolved effectively, efficiently, and safely, responders will spend less time on highways and thereby should be exposed to fewer dangers. Further, the likelihood of secondary crashes will decrease and congestion will be reduced.
The members of the multidisciplinary TIM Subcommittee40 have worked for the past 18 months to incorporate TIM concepts into the roll-call video Manage to Survive: Traffic Incident Management for First Responders, supported by a cooperative agreement among the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, its Research and Innovative Technology Administration, and the IACP. It will debut at the 119th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police in San Diego, California, September 29–October 3, and is intended to promote cooperation and coordination among the disciplines that respond to traffic incidents in order to achieve the NUG’s objectives.
| Attend the Highway Safety Committee’s Roll-Call Video: Manage to Survive: Traffic Incident Management for First Responders |
When: Monday, October 1, 3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m., in “Coordinated Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Saves Both Time and Lives” workshop
Where: IACP 2012, San Diego Convention Center
Contact: Richard J. Ashton, 1-800-843-4227, extension 276; or email@example.com
Time is the common denominator in all successful TIM programs. To the degree that disciplines seek more and better ways to work together concurrently, responder safety will improve, the effectiveness of on-scene operations will be enhanced, and drivers’ frustration will decline. ♦
1David Schrank, Tim Lomax, and Bill Eisele, 2011 Urban Mobility Report, September 2011, 1, http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/mobility-report-2011.pdf (accessed May 17, 2012).
2Nicholas Owens et al., Traffic Incident Management Handbook, FHWA HOP 10 013 (January 2010), 2, http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/eto_tim_pse/publications/timhandbook/tim_handbook.pdf (accessed May 17, 2012).
3“Section 2. Review of Literature,” Office of Operations, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Emergency Transportation Operations, March 31, 2009, quoting the Traffic Management Data Dictionary, http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/eto_tim_pse/docs/incident_mgmt_perf/section2.htm (accessed May 17, 2012).
4Owens et al., Traffic Incident Management Handbook, 2, 27, 58.
5FHWA, “Control of Traffic Through Traffic Incident Management Areas,” chap. 6I in Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD) (2009), 726, http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/pdfs/2009/part6.pdf (accessed May 17, 2012).
6“Traffic Incident Management,” Office of Operations, FHWA, USDOT, http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/eto_tim_pse/about/tim.htm (accessed May 17, 2012).
7National Traffic Incident Management Coalition, National Unified Goal for Traffic Incident Management, November 2007, http://www.transportation.org/sites/ntimc/docs/NUG%20Unified%20Goal-Nov07.pdf (accessed February 15, 2012).
8IACP Highway Safety Committee, “Contingent Support of the National Unified Goal for Traffic Incident Management,” IACP Resolution adopted at the 114th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (New Orleans, Louisiana, 2007), http://www.iacp.org/resolution/index.cfm?fa=dis_public_view&resolution_id=304&CFID=44353264&CFTOKEN=55324049 (accessed May 17, 2012).
9IACP Highway Safety Committee, “Quick Clearance of Roadway Incidents,” IACP Resolution adopted at the 117th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (Orlan