INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The south Florida region, which includes Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, has been one of the most congested urban areas in the United States. 1 Travelers in this region experience an annual average travel delay of 52 hours—13 hours worse than 10 years ago—making it the 12th worst in the United States. 2 Freeway incident management is one major measure being aggressively pursued by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to combat congestion in the region. Although congestion simply can result from traffic volumes exceeding available roadway capacity, studies have shown that traffic incidents account for as much as 60 percent of all traffic congestion. 3,4 An " incident " is defined as any non-recurring event that causes a reduction in roadway capacity or an abnormal increase in demand. 5 Examples of incidents include traffic crashes, disabled vehicles, spilled cargo, highway maintenance and special non-emergency events, such as sports events. Such incidents not only increase travel delays but also may result in new incidents , such as secondary crashes. An efficient incident management system is essential to avoid additional fatalities, physical injuries and property damage as well as to alleviate traffic congestion. As a major component of freeway incident management, freeway service patrol programs have been operating around the continental United States for decades. 6–8 By utilizing roving vehicles to patrol congested and/or high-incident freeway sections, service patrols can quickly identify incidents, minimize incident duration, reduce the risk of secondary crashes and restore the full capacity of freeway facilities. Service patrol programs