Chapter 2. Strategic Section

The number of questions in the Strategic section was reduced from 28 to 21, and grouped into three subsections:

• Formal Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Programs
• TIM Training and After-Action Reports
• TIM Performance Measures (TIM PM)

The TIM PM subsection is the largest, with 12 questions. Overall low TIM PM scores have typically resulted in the Strategic section scoring the lowest of the three sections; the 2020 Traffic Incident Management Capability Maturity Self-Assessment (TIM CM SA) is no different. The Strategic section scored a 64.7 percent compared to 75.9 percent in Tactical and 67.0 percent in Support. This year’s Strategic score, however, represents a 9.9 percent increase over the baseline of 58.9 percent. Among the three subsections, the average scores were:

• Formal TIM Programs: 3.0
• TIM Training and After-Action Reports: 2.7
• TIM PM: 2.3

Key to the success of a formal TIM program is regular meetings for TIM team member agencies. Among the 2020 TIM CM SA participants, 68 percent indicated meeting at least four times per year, if not more. Participants noted that in 2020 their teams met virtually to advance their TIM programs, rather than in person.

Three questions in the Strategic section addressed the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) national TIM Responder Training Program, which was originally developed as part of the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2). Respondents were asked to score their participation in SHRP2 training, if the training is conducted in a multidiscipline setting, and if the training has been incorporated into the State or local academy and/or technical college curriculums. Prior to the 2020 TIM CM SA revisions, respondents had been asked to score their programs based on the number of responders who had completed the training, relative to the total number of responders in the State. The FHWA decided to remove this question from the TIM CM SA, because training participation is tracked through a separate initiative. According to FHWA data, as of December 14, 2020, more than 507,000 individuals have received the training, which represents 43.8 percent of total responders to be trained.³

Despite the challenges of in-person training in 2020, TIM responders had additional training opportunities beyond SHRP2 training including Incident Command System/National Incident Management System, livestock incidents, cable barrier incident response, hazardous materials (HazMat), push/pull/drag, and queue awareness.

Five questions in the 2020 TIM CM SA had an average score at least 20 percent higher than the baseline; four of these questions were in the Strategic section, as shown in table 2. This indicates that, despite a short time line between the new 2015 baseline and 2020, TIM programs continue to make improvements in these four areas.

Within the same time period between the 2015 baseline and 2020 TIM CM SA, four questions had scores that decreased from the baseline, all in the TIM PM subsection, as shown in table 3.

For questions 11 and 15 concerning data collection and analysis for roadway clearance time (RCT) and incident clearance time (ICT), approximately 20 percent of respondents scored their programs with a 1. According to the TIM CM SA scoring guidance, programs should be scored with a 1 if “Data are present but not necessarily accessible or useful because they are not collected with a focus on performance measures.”⁴ As shown in table 4, primarily the non-top 75 areas are not yet using the available data to measure RCT and ICT.

Although scores for TIM PM questions have traditionally been low, progress continues in this area. As shown in table 5, only two questions in the 2020 TIM CM SA had an average score below 2.0, both on Secondary Crashes.

TIM programs with the highest scores in the Strategic section are shown in table 6.

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³ Federal Highway Administration, National TIM Responder Training Program Update, Talking TIM Webinar (December 15, 2020). [ Return to note 3. ]

⁴ Federal Highway Administration, Traffic Incident Management Capability Maturity Self-Assessment 2020 User Guide and Questions (September 1, 2020). [ Return to note 4. ]