Analysis of Benefits of an Expansion to UDOT’s Incident Management Program

Schultz, Grant G.; Saito, Mitsuru; Bennett, Logan S; Hyer, Joel; Eggett, Dennis L. · 2021 · ROSA P / Utah. Dept. of Transportation. Division of Research

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Summary

This study evaluates the benefits of expanding the Utah Department of Transportation’s (UDOT) Incident Management Team (IMT) program. Motivated by prior research indicating that reducing response and clearance times significantly lowers user costs, UDOT received legislative funding to increase IMT personnel and equipment by 12 units. The research aims to quantify the operational and economic impacts of this expansion by comparing performance metrics before and after the program growth, while accounting for external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodology involved a comparative analysis of incident data from 2018 (pre-expansion) and 2020 (post-expansion). Researchers utilized a reanalyzed 2018 dataset and a new 2020 dataset derived from the Utah Highway Patrol’s Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) logs and UDOT’s reconfigured TransSuite system, which provided improved data granularity. Performance measures included Response Time (RT), Roadway Clearance Time (RCT), and Incident Clearance Time (ICT). Additionally, user impacts were assessed by calculating Affected Volume (AV), Excess Travel Time (ETT), and Excess User Cost (EUC). Statistical analyses were conducted on 320 incidents in 2018 and 289 in 2020 for performance measures, and 188 and 144 incidents respectively for user impacts. To ensure validity, statistical models were adjusted to account for significant reductions in traffic volume caused by the pandemic. Results demonstrated that the expanded IMT program improved operational efficiency despite a 208 percent increase in coverage area. The percentage of incidents receiving an IMT response within 15 minutes increased from 58.8 percent in 2018 to 65.9 percent in 2020. Statistical analysis revealed that for every minute of response time in 2020, 14.66 minutes of ETT and $394.93 of EUC were saved. Extrapolating these savings across the approximately 9,000 incidents responded to in 2020, the program generated an estimated 32,985 hours of saved travel time and $53.3 million in reduced user costs. Although total AV, ETT, and EUC decreased by 28, 43, and 44 percent respectively between 2018 and 2020, the study isolated the program’s contribution, confirming that the expansion allowed for more consistent and faster responses to severe incidents. The study concludes that the IMT expansion provides substantial benefits to roadway users by reducing congestion and associated costs. The authors recommend continuing the current data collection methodology using CAD and TransSuite data to monitor performance. They also suggest developing training for all stakeholders involved in traffic incident management to enhance operational consistency. Finally, the authors identify the pandemic-induced traffic reduction as a limitation and recommend future research to quantify benefits under normal traffic conditions.

Key finding

The expansion of the Incident Management Team program increased the percentage of incidents responded to within 15 minutes from 58.8 percent to 65.9 percent and saved approximately $53.3 million in excess user costs in 2020.

Methodology

dataset

Sample size: 609

Provenance

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Topics

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• incidence prevalence

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource