Third Senior Executive Transportation and Public Safety Summit: Final Report

7. Partnerships to Advance Local Traffic Incident Management

This session was moderated by American Public Works Association (APWA) Director of Government and Public Affairs Andrea Eales who brought to light the importance of local focus on Traffic Incident Management (TIM) through an insightful panel of three elected officials (City Councilmember, County Commissioner, and State Senator) and a Governor's Policy Director. Panelists represented the National League of Cities (NLC), the National Association of Counties (NACo), the National Governors Association (NGA), and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Collaboratively, the panelists emphasized the importance of TIM for urban, county, and rural communities; and the importance of connecting with officials at every level to communicate the purpose, benefits, and needs of the TIM community.

The Honorable Randy Maluchnik, the Chair of the NACo Transportation Policy Steering Committee and Commissioner of Carver County, Minnesota, emphasized that counties are an essential part of the Nation's infrastructure, "owning 45 percent and operating over 50 percent of all public roads in the United States." He also noted that "while rural roads carry less than one-half of America's traffic, yet account for over one-half of all traffic fatalities." Commissioner Maluchnik also highlighted that local governments employed most of the personnel killed while responding to incidents.

Councilmember Maluchnik spoke about TIM in Carver County, including their participating in the Toward Zero Deaths program, a Sheriff's Officer Traffic Safety Program, and through active traffic management for the seven-county Twin Cities. NACo, an organization that serves nearly 40,000 county-elected officials and 3.6 million county employees, works to preserve and improve local decisionmaking. NACo advocates for county priorities in Federal policymaking. Councilmember Maluchnik shared how their association can promote the needs of TIM and TIM responder training through monthly Transportation Policy Steering Committee calls, through the association's Legislative Conference, and its annual conference.

Councilmember Sean Polster for the City of Warrenton, Virginia, a firefighter, and a Board Member with the NLC, shared both NLC's and his perspective on TIM. He indicated the phrase "Everyone Goes Home," comes from a campaign by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, and that this is the phrase that begins every day at his firehouse. And he reinforced the reality that everyone does not go home, and that every responder community has lost someone.

Councilmember Polster expressed that NLC is dedicated to reaching zero fatalities and is part of the Road to Zero effort. He asked the audience that when the next crash occurs, will the infrastructure support responders and travelers and will first responders be able to reach the crash? To meet that goal, how might better enforcement and awareness of Move Over laws be achieved. Councilmember Polster shared that NLC supports a robust Federal-local partnership for safe communities. As the largest and oldest association of cities, towns, and villages, NLC can continue to work with States to provide adequate TIM Training budgets, can help locally deploy first responder training through NLC national and State networks, and can help promote broader TIM practices and strategies.

Peter Voderberg, the Assistant Policy Director for Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, noted that the NGA provides both governors and their staff advocacy, operations consulting, and best practices information on a range of challenges, including transportation within the Energy, Infrastructure, and Environment division. The NGA, through funding from the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC), has explored data linkages across Federal, State, and local agencies to combat impaired driving, including components on improving safety for emergency responders and TIM.

Mr. Voderberg highlighted how the State of Ohio uses partnerships and emerging technologies to improve TIM. The State expanded from 400 responders trained during the year 2018 to over 1,200 responders trained during the year 2019. They have partnered with the Ohio Fire Academy and created an online training portal. Ohio also implemented variable speed limits (VSL) in November 2018 and has since observed a 21-percent reduction in total crashes and a 40-percent reduction in snow-related crashes along the road segments with VSL. The State also employs a broader suite of TIM strategies, such as freeway safety patrol, towing recovery incentives, and a "mind the queue" strategy, to further reduce the frequency and severity of secondary crashes. The focus in 2020 will be on regional TIM, and the State is working with a marketing consultant to capture current regional TIM practices and identify opportunities for improvement.

State Senator David Marsden of the Virginia Assembly and a member of NCSL shared that while the association does not have a direct position on TIM, they do promote the Move Over laws and provide legislatures with nonpartisan research and analysis about policy issues at the State and Federal levels. He also shared how incidents contribute to over 50 percent of the congestion in some Virginia corridors such as I-81, and yet as little as approximately 15 percent of overall delay in other corridors with significantly higher recurring congestion.⁷ Through TIM data, the State of Virginia can customize investment to best address corridor-specific needs. Senator Marsden also shared his Fender Bender bill (Virginia Senate Bill (SB) 1073) that allows for drivers in minor crashes to proceed to a designated pull-off area to exchange information when shoulder space is temporarily unavailable due to work zone construction.