Assessing Return on Investment of Freeway Safety Service Patrol Programs

Abstract

Safety service patrol (SSP) programs are widely used to help mitigate the effects of nonrecurring congestion and have become an increasingly vital element of incident management programs. In recent years, some state departments of transportation have initiated return-on-investment evaluations of their SSP programs. The purpose of this project was to use Virginia data to develop methods to evaluate and quantify the benefits of SSP programs; this involved developing a methodology to determine incident durations with and without SSPs for the Northern Virginia region and applying the results to a model to quantify the benefits associated with reductions in motorist delay, fuel consumption, and emissions attributable to SSP operations. To verify the general applicability of the methodology, the evaluation procedure was applied to the Hampton Roads, Virginia, SSP. The results showed that incident duration reductions attributable to SSP operations in these two areas resulted in benefit–cost ratios of 5.4:1 and 4.7:1, respectively. The methodology developed can be used by other agencies that have the means to collect and archive incident duration and location data. The amount of effort involved in applying the methodology is dependent on the type of data collected by the SSP and the state police and the level of integration of SSPs and computer-aided-dispatch databases in those regions.

Examination of factors affecting freeway incident clearance times: a comparison of the generalized F model and several alternative nested models

“…In response to these issues, many communities have initiated incident management programs aimed at detecting, responding to, and clearing incidents to restore freeways to full capacity as quickly and safely as possible . Such programs play an important role in the operation of the transportation system and require collaboration and efficient communication among various public and private agencies, including transportation engineers, freeway service patrol, law enforcement, fire and rescue, and towing and recovery companies . For incident management programs to be optimally implemented, it is important to assess the impacts of operational, roadway‐related, and incident‐specific factors on the effectiveness of incident management activities.…”

Risk Analysis of Safety Service Patrol (SSP) Systems in Virginia

“…According to a VDOT study, the average truck and labor cost of an SSP per hour is $32.05. ( 4 ) Adding that figure to the average fuel cost per hour of $9.78 (estimated below), the average total cost of an SSP per hour is $41.83. Assuming this SSP was employed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, this would equate to a cost of $366,431 per year for an additional SSP.…”

“…These speed data were retrieved from ADMS for the period of 168 consecutive hours from January 1, 2008 to February 5, 2008. The average fuel consumption was interpolated from a VDOT study, ( 4 ) based on an average speed of 61.73 mph. Lastly, the average gas price of $3.22/gallon for the analysis period was obtained from the American Automobile Association.…”

“… Public safety —a study completed by the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration on incident management reported an alarming number of roadway incidents that have taken the lives of civilians and emergency responders, evidenced by a steady increase of injuries and deaths that have occurred on emergency scenes. ( 3 ) The study calls for “implementing an effective traffic incident management system that could reduce this number.” Cost effectiveness —findings from a study by Dougald ( 4 ) indicate that an annual investment of $2.4 million in incident management through roadway SSP systems will result in $11.1 million savings in congestion‐related delay and fuel consumption—more than 350% return on investment. Hence, transportation agencies that do not currently employ SSPs can study the extent to which critical highway networks that they manage will benefit from the installation of such systems. Social and productivity issues —in a study of the I‐66 corridor in northern Virginia, ( 5 ) it was found that effective incident management could potentially decrease congestion by 25%.…”

“…Cost effectiveness —findings from a study by Dougald ( 4 ) indicate that an annual investment of $2.4 million in incident management through roadway SSP systems will result in $11.1 million savings in congestion‐related delay and fuel consumption—more than 350% return on investment. Hence, transportation agencies that do not currently employ SSPs can study the extent to which critical highway networks that they manage will benefit from the installation of such systems.…”