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Vancouver Area Smart Trek
Initiative 3
Incident Management
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The freeway and arterial incident management plan covers operation of any function, device or system that is dedicated to the response to or monitoring of incidents on arterials and freeways.
The only existing incident management function operated by the Vancouver region’s various transportation management agencies is an incident response truck that is used by WSDOT in the Southwest Region. This truck is only dispatched when a severe incident occurs on a state highway in the WSDOT Southwest Region. This truck does not roam the freeways during the peak commute hours like the COMET trucks in Portland. Once on scene, the incident responder is only allowed to provide traffic control and help with cleanup. Because of towing company union laws, the incident response truck is not allowed to tow vehicles off of the freeway.
WSDOT and 911 Emergency Dispatch will be co-located in a new facility at SR-500/112th Avenue. This joint facility will allow these two agencies to improve their coordination while managing large incidents or regional emergencies.
WSDOT, Clark County and the City of Vancouver currently have emergency vehicle preemption equipment installed at over 95% of their traffic signals. In addition, WSDOT and Clark County are in the process of installing cameras on a section of I-5 and Highway 99 for the purpose of managing incidents and monitoring congestion. The County will also use them for monitoring their traffic signals.
Needs
The following needs have been identified for improving the management of incidents in the Vancouver area:
- Real-time traffic and incident information to fire, police and 911
- Incident response vehicles
- Real-time congestion and incident information for dispatchers
- Automated incident detection
- Coordinated response to incidents with local agencies
- Tracking system for vehicles carrying hazardous materials
- Predefined hazardous material routes
- Computer aided dispatch system and wireless communication equipment for emergency response
- Dynamic routing of emergency vehicles based on current traffic conditions
- Support private sector deployment of mayday(1) system
- Information to residents about movement of hazardous materials in their neighborhoods
(1) A mayday system includes an in-vehicle device for determining vehicle crash locations and transmitting that information.
Criteria
The following list presents measures that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of incident management projects. The list includes both qualitative and quantifiable measures. Evaluations of performance need not quantify every measure in this list.
- Integration of transportation systems
- Number of incidents
- Number of accidents
- Number of injuries
- Number of fatalities
- Time between incident and notification
- Time between notification and response
- Time between arrival and clearance
- Medical costs
- Property damage
- Insurance costs
- Number of trips taken to non-critical incidents
- Freeway and arterial miles viewable by cameras
- Exposure to accidents and incidents
- Congestion and incident related delay
- Incident related capacity restrictions
- Operating cost savings
- Emissions savings
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Strategies
- Provide complete CCTV camera coverage of freeways.
- Install CCTV cameras on freeways so every mile within the region can be viewed. This will provide the local agencies with the ability to monitor incidents that occur at any point along the freeways and dispatch appropriate personnel to respond to the incidents rapidly thereby reducing the potential for secondary incidents.
- Provide CCTV camera coverage on major arterials.
- Install CCTV cameras at major congestion points and high crash locations on major arterials. The local agencies have the ability to monitor incidents and respond by dispatching the appropriate personnel and/or modifying the signal timing.
- Deploy detector stations for incident monitoring along the freeways.
- Freeway and arterial management software can be developed to automatically detect incidents based on detector information. When detector stations detect an unusually rapid increase in congestion on a roadway, the incident detection system in the freeway or arterial management software program can automatically alert the operator of a possible incident. If cameras are available in the area, the operator could select (or the system could automatically select) the best camera to view the incident.
- Deploy detector stations for incident monitoring along major arterials.
- Freeway and arterial management software can be developed to automatically detect incidents through the use of detector stations along arterials. Using the same process as described above, congestion along the arterial can be identified.
- Develop incident response plans for interagency coordination.
- For large incidents that effect multiple agencies, a response plan should be developed for managing traffic. The plan should designate the roles and responsibilities of each agency during an incident and include a method to notify each agency’s traffic management center operator when the incident occurs.
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- Deploy a fleet of incident response vehicles.
- Incidents on major freeways and arterials can result in increased congestion and increases the potential for secondary incidents. Using incident response vehicles, incidents can be cleared sooner, reducing the amount of resultant congestion.
- Install changeable message signs (CMS) approaching critical congestion points within the Vancouver region freeway and arterial management system.
- Changeable message signs have proven quite effective in communicating information to motorists. Various studies have proven their usefulness in enabling motorists to make smart travel decisions in advance of non-recurring congestion, such as those caused by incidents, hazardous spills, etc.