TRAFFIC INCIDENT MANAGEMENT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Traffic incident management (TIM) requires a coordinated, multi-disciplinary approach to safely and quickly clear a highway incident. The necessity of a multi-disciplinary approach—involving law enforcement, fire and rescue, transportation, towing and recovery, and others—has been well-recognized and integrated into TIM operations. Established multi-disciplinary operational training efforts attempt to minimize any inefficiencies or ineffectiveness in response actions by any one agency that may extend the necessary duration of the incident and/or compromise the safety of field personnel or the motoring public. The economic effects of this multi-disciplinary operational approach are most often tied to a reduction in overall incident duration and reported in monetary terms as a reduction in motorist delay, fuel consumption, harmful emissions, and/or secondary incidents involving either other motorists or response personnel.

This same multi-disciplinary approach has not been as widely extended to the area of resource management (i.e., the strategic use of personnel, equipment, technologies, and supplies or materials). To optimize incident management efficiency and effectiveness from a resource management point of view, personnel and equipment should be best matched to tasks based on their respective level of training and/or capabilities. For example, a higher level of efficiency and equal or higher effectiveness may be obtained by using a transportation vehicle equipped with an arrow board and additional traffic control devices to protect the scene rather than law enforcement or fire and rescue vehicles. As a second example, use of responsive traffic signal control plans and/or transportation personnel to manage traffic at and around an incident scene would relieve law enforcement personnel from this duty and allow them to perform other tasks for which they are trained (i.e., crash investigation).

Through a multi-disciplinary, holistic approach that considers the most efficient and effective use of resources across all responding agencies in combination,  economic savings are anticipated and attributable to the:

1. Utilization of personnel who are best qualified (i.e., capable, but not over-qualified) for the various tasks (this, in turn, allows alternately skilled personnel to focus on other incident management functions),
2. Utilization of appropriate equipment by function (i.e., use of the least costly equipment capable of performing the function),
3. Utilization of appropriate technology capable of supporting various on-site resource tasks, and

Reduction in overall resources required through reduced redundancy across disciplines.

Purpose of This Document

The purpose of this guidebook is to:

1. Identify and explore opportunities for improvement in resource management by considering the most efficient and effective use of resources across all responding agencies in combination and
2. Describe potential cost-sharing strategies that would allow these efficiencies to be realized.

This document focuses primarily on potential resource management improvements for public agencies (i.e., law enforcement, fire and rescue, emergency medical services, and transportation); private industry participants, such as towing and recovery or the media, were not considered.

Target Audience

The target audience for this guidebook includes state and local political officials, public agency management or administrative personnel, and public agency operations personnel:

• State and Local Political Officials – In an abbreviated form, state and local political officials will benefit from this information by identifying, promoting, and demonstrating efficient and effective resource management among government agencies within their jurisdictions.
• Public Agency Management/Administrative Personnel – Public agency management and administrative personnel will benefit from this information by identifying, promoting, and demonstrating efficient and effective resource management within their respective agencies.
• Public Agency Operations Personnel – Public agency operations personnel, responsible for affecting efficient and effective resource management on a per-incident basis, will benefit from this information through specific examples of resource management efficiencies and through a broader, multidisciplinary resource management perspective.

Structure of this Guidebook

This guidebook is one in an Information Series on Traffic Incident Management Safe, Quick Clearance. This guidebook focuses on Traffic Incident Management Resource Management. Other guidebooks available in this information series deal with the following topics:

• Traffic Control Concepts for Incident Clearance,
• Hazardous Materials Spills in Incident Clearance,
• Traffic Incident Management in Construction and Maintenance Work Zones, and
• Information Sharing for Traffic Incident Management.

Each is intended to provide sufficiently detailed and complementary information to support improvements in unique aspects of safe and quick incident clearance. This document focuses on Traffic Incident Management Resource Management and is intended to identify opportunities for improvement in resource management by considering the most efficient and effective use of resources across all responding agencies in combination and describe potential cost-sharing strategies that would allow these efficiencies to be realized.

Following this introductory information, this document provides a:

1. Review of the multidisciplinary approach as applied in TIM operations;
2. Description of the multidisciplinary approach as applied and/or envisioned for TIM resource management;
3. Description of common TIM resources, functions, and costs;
4. Discussion of potential TIM resource management efficiency improvements and associated cost savings; and
5. Description of companion cost-sharing strategies.