Harnessing the Power of Microscopic Simulation to Evaluate Freeway Service Patrols1
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 7
Abstract
Public agencies have been increasing their use of freeway service patrols (FSPs) to help with incident detection, verification, response, and motorist support. Using the microscopic simulation software PARAMICS, this study evaluated the benefits of FSPs in reducing the duration of roadway blockage, following a crash and the resulting vehicle delay. A customized PARAMICS model was developed for random spatial and temporal crash generation, and the modeling of different number of FSPs and response policies through an application programming interface. Analysis of the simulation results revealed that both response policy and the number of FSPs affected the crash response times and consequently the duration of blockage and vehicle delays. The effects of different response policies diminished as the number of FSPs increased. Benefit-cost analysis indicated that FSP programs can obtain a maximum benefit-cost ratio of 22:1, which decreases as the number of FSPs increases, number of crashes per year decreases, and the discount rate increases.
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Acknowledgments
The writers wish to thank the SCDOT for funding this research, and Greenville Traffic Management Center for providing incident and FSP related data. They would also like to thank the project advisory committee, consisting of members from the SCDOT, State Highway Patrol, and Federal Highway Administration, for providing guidance to them in conducting this research.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 7 • July 2009
Pages: 427 - 439
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 12, 2007
Accepted: Feb 5, 2009
Published online: Jun 15, 2009
Published in print: Jul 2009
Notes
The paper was presented at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., January 2007.
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