Improve incident detection and management

The region, working with system operators and municipal, county, and state police, should establish a goal and develop strategies to reduce the amount of time roads are closed due to crash investigations. Improving incident management is a high priority because it improves safety and reduces congestion. Some serious highway incidents require hours to clear. Nationwide, approximately 20 percent of all incidents are secondary ones caused by the congestion and disruption of a previous incident.^{{{Federal Highway Administration Office of Operations, “Traffic Incident Management,” April 2004, http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/aboutus/one_pagers/tim.htm.}}} Shortening their duration reduces the potential for additional incidents. Each incident presents an opportunity to reduce congestion through earlier detection and verification, faster response, and adherence to quick clearance principles. Unlike other highway operations activities, incident management is largely managed by a public safety agency, with the transportation agency playing a supporting role. While much of the work to improve performance falls upon the public safety agencies, transportation agencies can also take steps such as implementing automated incident detection methods, either with traffic cameras or real-time GPS probe data. These technologies can be and are being incorporated as part of broader traffic operations projects (see the Coordinate traffic operations region-wide strategy). For example, the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) has been reconstructed to include flexible infrastructure to enable the Tollway to add new “smart” features, such as roadway cameras that enhance the Tollway’s ability to respond to traffic and weather incidents and enable transit to bypass incidents using the flex lane.