Evaluating Alternative Operations Strategies to Improve Travel Time ...

SHRP 2 L11: Final Appendices
• Mobility: Several studies showed that Service Patrols can reduce incident response by 19% to 77%. And incident clearance time by
8 min (4).
An analysis of nearly 10,000 incidents arising in the Hudson Valley region of New York State showed that the implementation of a
FSP program would save approximately 33 vehicle-hours in travel delay per incident (53).
A comprehensive evaluation of the FSP program at a San Francisco Bay Area freeway section showed that the delay savings per
assisted breakdown were 42.36 veh-h. Savings for assisted accidents were 20.32 veh-h/incident, and 9.35 veh-h for the non-assisted
ones (54).
• Efficiency: A survey conducted by the University of California, Berkeley found that the benefits of the Los Angeles Metro
Freeway Service Patrols outweighed the costs by more than 8 to 1 in 2004 (1).
The Florida's Road Ranger program documented a savings of 1.7 million gallons of fuel across the state in 2004 due to incidentrelated
delay (3).
The Hoosier Helper freeway service patrol program in Northwest Indiana had a projected benefit-to-cost ratio of nearly 5:1 for
daytime operations, and over 13:1 for 24-hour operations (5).
A study of two highways in Northern Virginia show that Service Patrols can reduce traffic delays and the computed b/c ratio was
5.4:1 and 4.7:1 (6).
• Energy/Environment: A comprehensive evaluation of the FSP program at a San Francisco Bay Area freeway section showed a
reduction of air pollutant emissions which include 77.2 tons of carbon monoxide, 19.1 tons of oxides of nitrogen and 7.6 tons of
hydrocarbons (54).
• Customer Satisfaction: Satisfaction with motorist assistance patrols ranged from 93% to greater than 95% in two surveys of drivers
already aware of the service in Atlanta (1).
Strategy: 4.2. Post-event
Category: 4. Incident and Special Event Management
TREATMENTS AND IMPACTS:
On-Scene Incident Management (Incident Responder Relationship, High visibility garments, Clear Buffer zones, Incident Screens)
• Safety: The Maryland State Coordinated Highway Action Response Team (CHART) highway incident management system
facilitated a 28.6% reduction on the average incident duration leading to an estimated 377 fewer secondary incidents (1).
ADDITIONAL DESCRIPTION AND QUANTITATIVE BENEFITS OF TRAVEL-TIME RELIABILITY STRATEGIES Page F-30