Emergency Transportation Operations
Table of Contents

Appendix D. Incident Management Performance Measure Survey

Incident Management Performance Measures Agency Survey

Contact Person:________________________ Telephone Number: _________________________
Agency: ______________________________ Date/Time of Survey: ________________________
Position:______________________________ Fax Number__ _____ ________________
Duties related to the system: (operations, management, etc.) _____________________________________

Hello. My name is _______________________ and I am with the Texas Transportation Institute.

We are currently working on a project for the Federal Highway Administration dealing with performance measures for incident management systems. The purpose of this project is to obtain a better understanding of how agencies measure the performance of their organized incident management systems, and to identify the difference, if any, in the definitions of relevant measures of performance of their incident management systems. As part of this project, we are conducting a survey of several locations in the United States that have active incident management programs and I would like to ask you to participate in this survey.

I have a series of questions that I would like to ask you concerning how you measure the performance of your systems and how these performance measures are generated. The survey takes about 20-30 minutes to complete. Some of the questions have predefined responses while others are open-ended. We used predefined responses in some questions only to speed up the data collection process. If one or more of the predefined responses does not fit your situation, please feel free to add others. Occasionally, I may ask you some follow-up questions so that I'm sure I understand your response.

Again, the survey takes about 20-30 minutes to complete. Is now a convenient time or would you prefer that I call you back at a later time?

Call back When? (set date and time)_____________________________________

1. Definitions

In looking at the literature, it appears that different agencies define what an incident is differently. In the first series of questions, we are trying to understand how different agencies define incidents and how this might effect their response.

1.1. From your agencies perspectives, what events affecting traffic does you agency define as an "incident"?

check box Collisions
check box Overturned vehicles
check box Stalled/Disabled vehicle in a travel lane
check box Abandoned vehicle in a travel lane
check box Stalled vehicle on the shoulder
check box Vehicle on Fire
check box HAZMAT Spill
check box Abandoned vehicle on shoulder
check box Public Emergency
check box Debris on roadway
check box All the above
check box Any others? (please identify)

1.2. Does your agency have a system for classifying incidents?

check box No right arrow Go to Section 2
check box Yes

1.3. What criterion is (are) used (e.g., severity, duration of blockages, etc.)?

1.4. What are the thresholds for each classification level?

1.5. How is this classification system used? In other words, how does your response differ based upon the classification of the incident?

2. Information Collected Per Incident

Different agencies and different systems collect incident data differently. With these questions, we are trying to get a handle on what information about incidents different agency collect, how they do it, how long they keep incident information, etc.

2.1. Does your agency keep a permanent or semi-permanent log of events for each type of incident?

check box No. Why not?

Go to Section 3!

check box Yes right arrow Continue below

2.2. What information is collected about each incident?

check box Roadway Name
check box Location/Cross – Street Name
check box Block Number
check box Detector Station #
check box Geographic Location (lat/long)
check box Location of Lanes Blocked
check box Incident Type
check box Incident Source (Detected by system or Reported by cell phone, courtesy patrol, etc.)
check box The current status of the incident i.e., whether it has been Detected, Verified, Canceled, etc.)
check box Time incident was detected
check box Time incident was verified
check box Source of incident verification
check box Time response vehicles arrived on scene (Do you record each individual vehicle arrivals or collectively?)
check box Type of response vehicles on scene
check box Time response vehicles left scene
check box Time incident was cleared from scene (What is your definition of clearance – moved to shoulder, response vehicles departs, removed from roadway altogether, other?
check box Time traffic returned to normal flow
check box Roadway Surface Condition
check box Roadway Condition (Wet, Dry, etc)
check box Light Condition (Daylight, Nighttime, Dawn, Dusk, etc.)
check box Weather Conditions
check box Injuries Present
check box # of Vehicle Involved
check box Type of Vehicle Involved
check box Incident severity (qualitative)
check box Others (Please Specify)

2.3. How is this information collected?

check box Manual forms – Can I get a copy of your incident logging forms?
check box Automatically through freeway management software – Can I get a screen capture of your logging screen?
check box Other:

2.4. In what format is this information stored (paper file, electronic file, queriable database)?

2.5. How long to you generally retain this information?

2.6. Are other sources of incident information ever integrated with yours to cross-reference or verify your information (i.e. police logs, accident reports, courtesy patrol records, etc.)? If so, what sources?

2.7. What would you estimate the cost to be for collecting, processing, and reporting your incident measures?

3. Performance Measures

3.1. Do you calculate different performance measures from the information you routinely collect about each incident (e.g., incident duration, response times, etc.)?

check box Yes right arrow Continue Below
check box No right arrow Why not?

3.2. What measures do you routinely compute to assess the performance of your incident management program?

check box Incident Frequency
check box Incident Rate
check box Detection Time
check box Response Time
check box Clearance Time
check box Number of Secondary Incidents
check box Time to Normal Flow
check box Incident Delay
check box Others:

3.3. What are your operational definitions for each performance measure (i.e., when does the clock start and stop for each performance measure)

Incident Frequency right arrow

Incident Rate right arrow

Detection Time right arrow

Response Time right arrow

Clearance Time right arrow

Number of Secondary Incidents right arrow

Time to Normal Flow right arrow

Incident Delay right arrow

Others:

3.4. How are these reports generated?

check box By facility
check box System Wide
check box By Segment
check box Other:

3.5. How were these operational definitions derived? By whom? What was the process for deriving them? Were other agencies involved? If so, who were they and how?

3.6. Are there other performance measures that you are not collecting, but you think would be beneficial for you to know as they relate to the performance of your incident management system? If so, what are they and how would you measure it?

3.7. How long have you been collecting and calculating these performance measures?

3.8. What would you estimate the cost to be for collecting, processing, and reporting your incident mgmt. measures?

4. Use of Performance Measures

4.1. Do you commonly generate any reports, tables, summary statistics, etc. that use these performance measures?

check box Yes right arrow Request Copy of typical report and continue
check box No. Do you have any plans?

check box No right arrow Go to Section 5!
check box Yes right arrow Continue below
    What kinds of reports/tables/summary statistics?

4.2. When do expect to start producing them?

4.3. How are you planning to produce them?

4.4. Why are you going to start producing them?

4.5. How are these performance measures generally used in your system?

4.6. How often are they produced?

check box On an as needed basis
check box Daily
check box Weekly
check box Bi-weekly
check box Monthly
check box Quarterly
check box Semi-Annually
check box Annually
check box Other (Please specify)

4.7. With whom are these performance measures shared (within agency, other agencies, public)?

4.8. How does your agency use the information in these reports? What decisions are made based on or are influenced by these measures?

4.9. In general, do you think the information in these reports or the performance measures themselves to be:

4.9.1. Timely

check box Yes
check box No. Why?

4.9.2. Useful

check box Yes
check box No. Why?

4.9.3. Accurate

check box Yes
check box No. Why?

4.9.4. Provide the information necessary for effective decision-making?

check box Yes
check box No. Why?

5. Institutional Issues

5.1. Do other agencies (such as fire, police, DOT, etc.) keep similar information about incidents in your jurisdiction?

5.2. Do you integrate or compare your information with other agencies?
When?

How often?

How?

5.3. What are generally your findings when this occurs?

5.4. What kind of issues did you face when you set up your system and how did you deal with them?

5.5. In your opinion, what are the most important things to be measuring, whether or not you currently collecting?

6. Contacts in Other Agencies

As part of this project, we would also like to ask these same questions to other agencies that are active in your incident management program. Would it be possible for you to give me the name and telephone number of your contacts in the other agencies that participate in local incident management program?

State DOT:

City DOT(s):

Police:

Fire:

EMS:

Others:

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