New framework and decision support tool to warrant detour operations during freeway corridor incident management.

PDFTech ReportCFIRE 05-150092-12-09DTRT06-G-0020Traffic congestionFreewaysDetoursTraffic delayTraffic managersFreight trafficIncident managementTraffic simulationDecision support systemsWisconsinWisconsin. Dept. of TransportationLiu, YueMao, JingWehner, KevinNational Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (U.S.)United States. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology AdministrationNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATIONNTL-OPERATIONS AND TRAFFIC CONTROLS-CongestionNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-PLANNING AND POLICYNTL-FREIGHT-FREIGHTUS Transportation CollectionUp to 60% of freeway delays are due to non-recurrent congestion caused by reduced capacity on a freeway section coupled with long incidentdurations. In such conditions, if proper detour strategies could be implemented in time, traffic could circumvent the congested segments bydiverting to parallel arterials. Nevertheless, prior to implementation of any detour strategy, traffic managers need a set of warrants, asdetour operations usually demand substantial amount of resources and manpower. This research will develop an effective decision-supporttool to assist traffic managers to warrant appropriate detour operations under various incident scenarios and corridor networkconfigurations. Well-justified detour decisions can result in substantial economic savings (e.g. reduced fuel wastage and emissions) and safetybenefits for the freight industry and society due to the less delay and fewer stops of trucks and all other vehicles. Such benefits will increasesignificantly in future with the expected increase in freight traffic on the traffic network. The proposed tool also has the flexibility to befurther integrated with other incident management modules to better assist traffic managers in making critical decisions during their dailyoperations