Optimization of Emergency Traffic Patrols (ETP) Operations

Unexpected congestion due to incidents may cause a substantial delay for drivers and reduce the roadway safety. Effective incident management relies on many tools to lessen the overall impact of crashes, road debris, and stalled/disabled vehicles. Many urban areas have adopted emergency response patrol programs that patrol the freeway network searching for incidents, providing aid to motorists, and assisting with incident management and clearance. Patrol management must consider the zone structure, fleet size, and fleet allocation. We developed a comprehensive mathematical model to design the network for patrol programs. The model aims to concurrently determine the zone configuration, fleet size, and allocation, to minimize incident incurred delay while the operational cost is taken into account. This research aims at extending the mathematical model to determine the most efficient patrol coverage area, given an underlying transportation network. An important question for incident management officials is to determine where patrol units are required and where other strategies such as dispatch response are desired. Given the transportation network, we plan to determine the patrol coverage area by taking into account elements such as incident frequency, operation cost, average patrolling and dispatch response times. Determining the patrol coverage area and the non-patrolling area will significantly save the operation cost by avoiding non-necessary patrolling.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $140000
• Contract Numbers:

  69A43551747123

• Sponsor Organizations:

  University of Maryland, College Park

  College Park, MD  United States  20742

  Morgan State University

  1700 E. Coldspring Lane
  Baltimore, Maryland  United States  21251

  Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration

  707 North Calvert Street
  Baltimore, MD  United States  21202

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  U.S. Department of Transportation

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Urban Mobility and Equity Center

  Morgan State University
  Baltimore, MD  United States  21251
• Project Managers:

  Tucker-Thomas, Dawn

• Performing Organizations:

  Urban Mobility and Equity Center

  Morgan State University
  Baltimore, MD  United States  21251
• Principal Investigators:

  Haghani, Ali

  Jeihani, Mansoureh

• Start Date: 20171101
• Expected Completion Date: 20190531
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cost effectiveness; Freeway service patrols; Incident management; Location; Mathematical models; Optimization
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01650135
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Urban Mobility and Equity Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A43551747123
• Files: UTC, RiP
• Created Date: Oct 31 2017 2:34PM