Incident scene guidance and alerts through CV-applications can potentially reduce network delay up to 14 percent.

Simulation of incident-related applications show potential to reduce total response and clearance times, delays, and secondary incidents.

Date Posted
02/09/2016
Identifier
2015-B01048
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Impact Assessment of Incident Scene Work Zone Alerts for Drivers and Workers (INC-ZONE) and Incident Scene Pre-Arrival Staging Guidance for Emergency Responders (RESP-STG)

Summary Information

Response, Emergency Staging and Communications, Uniform Management, and Evacuation (R.E.S.C.U.M.E) is a Dynamic Mobility Applications (DMA) bundle that utilizes real-time connected vehicle (CV) data to target the improvement of traffic safety and mobility during crashes and other emergencies that affect the highway network.

  • Incident Scene Pre-Arrival Staging Guidance for Emergency Responders (RESP-STG), a component application of the R.E.S.C.U.M.E bundle, is designed to provide information about incident scenes to emergency responders before their arrival.
  • Incident Scene Work Zone Alerts for Drivers and Workers (INC-ZONE), a fellow component application, works to provide drivers with merging and speed guidance as they approach an incident zone.

Modeling and simulation testing the ability of the RESP-STG and INC-ZONE applications was performed on an 8.5-mile stretch of the US 101 freeway in San Mateo County in California.

Evaluation Approach



For the simulation, 24 scenarios were modeled utilizing various operational conditions: two incident conditions (short, long), two weather conditions (dry, rainy) and 6 levels of CV market penetration rates (0%, 10% 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). A quantitative assessment of modeling and simulation examined the potential impacts of INC-ZONE and RESP-STG at a microscopic scale around incident zones and at an extrapolated regional level. 2012 travel time data was used for simulation model calibration. Demand data was extracted from Caltrans Performance Measurement System (PeMS) database. In addition, incident data from California Highway Patrol Dispatch Data was used to create incidents at the locations that historically had the highest incident rates.



Key Findings

  • For short incident scenarios, the reduction in network delay was between 1 percent and 7 percent, and the increase in average speed was between 0.25 percent and 3 percent for rainy conditions.
  • For long incident scenarios, the reduction in network delay was between 1 percent and 14 percent, and the increase in average speed was between 1 percent and 8 percent for dry conditions.
  • Reduction in maximum deceleration was found to be between 1 and 89 percent for different operational conditions, with the highest improvement being for the scenarios with dry conditions and a long incident.
  • There is a considerable decrease in delay and an increase in speed as clearance times are reduced using the RESP-STG application. Network-wide delay reductions were up to 3.25 percent given a 15-percent reduction in clearance times under dry conditions.
  • There was up to 23 percent reduction in travel time and up to a 15 percent reduction in number of stops for emergency vehicles.

Impact Assessment of Incident Scene Work Zone Alerts for Drivers and Workers (INC-ZONE) and Incident Scene Pre-Arrival Staging Guidance for Emergency Responders (RESP-STG)

Impact Assessment of Incident Scene Work Zone Alerts for Drivers and Workers (INC-ZONE) and Incident Scene Pre-Arrival Staging Guidance for Emergency Responders (RESP-STG)
Source Publication Date
05/09/2015
Author
Gustave Cordahi, Mahsa Ettefagh, Raj Kamalanathsharma, SudeekshaMurari
Publisher
U.S. Department of Transportation Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office 1200 New Jersey Ave SE Washington, DC 20590
Goal Areas
Deployment Locations