Traffic incident management : a common operational picture to support situational awareness of sustainable mobility

Successful traffic Incident Management (IM) presupposes a multidisciplinary approach. To meet appropriately the safety and mobility needs of all affected parties, traffic incidents call for a high level of cooperation and coordination of the agencies involved. Effective traffic IM activities rely in particular on flexible communications and information systems. On the basis of experiences from the military domain, it is possible to develop strategic concepts that ensure the improvement of information sharing and collective action. Such concepts can also be applied to enhanced traffic IM information systems. This paper provides a review of the state of the art in this field and illustrates the empirical usefulness and benefits of traffic IM.