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Incident Management Coordinator Vehicle Red Lights Completion Project

In 2022, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) gained approval to install flashing red lights on certain incident management coordinator (IMC) vehicles. Previously, only amber lights were permitted. In a prior phase of this project, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute identified IMC vehicles that were candidates for inclusion and worked with district operations personnel to install data acquisition system (DAS) systems. A total of eight IMC vehicles were instrumented, including two from each of the Salem, Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Richmond districts. Unanticipated delays with the red lights training program and the final procurement and physical installation of red lights delayed final approval to use the red lights in actual operations, so only baseline data were collected in that initial phase of work. VDOT recently announced that red light operations would begin in November 2025, so a 2nd phase of this research will be conducted to determine how red lights impact operations of IMCs. Specifically, the research will seek to answer five major research questions: (1) What is the impact of red lights on incident response times? (2) What is the impact of red lights on interactions with other vehicles while enroute to incident? (3) What is the impact of red lights on compliance with Standard Operating Procedures while enroute to incident? (4) What is the impact on overall IMC driving performance and safety when red lights are used? (5) Do red lights have impact on passing driver’s approach and Move Over Law behavior compliance observed when parked on shoulder? Data collected during this 2nd phase of work with red lights in operation will be compared to the prior baseline data collection to assess any impacts of the red lights.