Improving Traffic Incident Management through
Performance Measurement and Management
Introduction
Motor vehicle crashes in the United States
cause approximately $836 billion in
economic loss and societal harm annually. 1
Traffic incident management (TIM)
consists of a planned and coordinated
multidisciplinary process to detect, respond
to, and clear traffic incidents so that traffic
flow may be restored as safely and quickly
as possible. 2 Effective TIM reduces the
duration and impacts of traffic incidents;
improves the safety of motorists, crash
victims, and emergency responders; and
keeps people and goods moving. Anyone
who has been stuck in traffic due to a traffic
incident can attest to the importance of
effective and efficient TIM programs. Yet,
despite their critical role in maintaining
safety and restoring normal traffic
operations during incidents, TIM programs
are typically underfunded. Incorporating the
concepts of performance measurement and
performance management into TIM
programs can lead to improved TIM
processes and procedures and can generate
information to help educate decisionmakers
and the traveling public about the
effectiveness of these programs.
Performance measurement is the regular
collection of quantitative data to assess
whether the correct processes are being
performed and desired results are being
achieved in the delivery of services.
Performance measures can reveal how well
a program or organization is doing, if it is
1
The Economic and Societal Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, USDOT, 2010 (Revised), http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf.
2
FHWA Office of Operations Traffic Incident Management Web site:
http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/eto_tim_pse/about/tim.htm.
meeting its goals, and if and what
improvements are necessary. Performance
management is a forward-looking,
continuous process that applies performance
measures and standards in order to achieve
desired results. Performance management
can be implemented at many levels,
including programmatic, organizational,
municipal, and statewide.
Performance measurement and management
within transportation is becoming
increasingly important. In fact, a cornerstone
of MAP-21, the Moving Ahead for Progress
in the 21st Century Act, is the transition to a
performance and outcome-based program.
States are required to incorporate the use of
performance goals, measures, and targets in
the project selection process. Then, as States
meet their individual performance targets,
collectively, progress will be made toward
meeting national goals.
Performance measurement requires agencies
to collect and analyze data and to report and
use the findings. However, no organization
wants to collect data for the sake of
collecting data. Implemented properly,
performance measurement produces not
only data, but also information and
knowledge that offer a host of benefits.
March 2016
Benefits of Traffic Incident
Management Performance
Measurement
How can performance measurement and
management benefit traffic incident
management (TIM)? Armed with TIM
performance data, agencies can:
Increase transparency and accountability
of their TIM programs by demonstrating
program effectiveness (doing the right
things) and efficiency (doing
things right).
Demonstrate fiscal responsibility in
managing TIM program funds.
Educate the public, legislators, and other
decisionmakers on the importance of a
robust TIM program.
Secure program funding or demonstrate
the need for additional funding.
Make good investment decisions.
Enhance improvements and outcomes:
Identify roadways, locations, or incident
types where performance isnt up to par,
assess strengths, identify issues and
challenges, and identify opportunities
for improvement.
Reduce risks for first responders: Each
minute of incident clearance time
statistically increases the likelihood of a
secondary crash; 3 TIM performance data
is indispensable to gauging success in
reducing that clearance time.
Improve communication, coordination,
and relationships with TIM partners.
Make progress towards the national
performance goals of improved system
efficiency and reduced injuries
and fatalities.
3 Karlaftis, et al. ITS Impacts on Safety and Traffic Management: An Investigation of Secondary Crash
Causes, ITS Journal, 1999, vol. 5, pp. 39-52.
According to Jeff King of the Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA), TIM
programs at all levels are beginning to
recognize the need to use performance
measurements to assess the strengths of their
responses and to identify opportunities for
improvement. Through the collection of
performance measures on all incidents,
agencies are able to see trends and identify
strategies that will work for them.
National Traffic Incident
Management Performance
Measures
Through work conducted by Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) and
11 States in 2005, three national traffic
incident management (TIM) performance
measures were developed to assist TIM
practitioners in evaluating their performance
during incidents: roadway clearance time,
incident clearance time, and secondary
crashes. Roadway clearance time is defined
as the time between the first recordable
awareness of the incident by a responsible
agency and the first confirmation that all
lanes are available for traffic flow. Incident
clearance time is defined as the time
between the first recordable awareness of
the incident by a responsible agency and the
time when the last responder has left the
scene. Secondary crashes are defined as the
number (or percentage) of unplanned
crashes beginning with the time of detection
of the primary crash, when a crash occurs as
a result of the original crash either within the
incident scene or within the queue in
either direction.
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 The checklist contains
important data elements
for TIM performance
measurement, including
those required to calculate
the three national TIM
performance measures
and those desirable from
an analysis perspective.
The desirable elements
allow a TIM organization
to drill down into its
performance by
considering the impacts of
factors such as incident
type, location, and lanes
involved. Agencies can
use this list to assess what
data elements are
available and from
what sources.

Figure 1. Check list. Important data elements for traffic incident

management (TIM) performance measurement (PM).

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The establishment of these performance
measures created a defined, sustainable, and
comparable basis for TIM program
assessment across the boundaries of any
given region, allowing for the analysis of
national incident response trends. Consistent
and comparable performance reporting is an
essential tool in promoting TIM and
TIM funding.
Traffic Incident Management
Performance Data
The systematic performance measurement
and management process involves collecting
and analyzing data to determine if
organizational objectives have been met and
then using the information internally to
make strategic and tactical decisions, as well
as to report findings to stakeholders and
customers. These data traditionally are
generated by transportation and law
enforcement organizations; however, data
from other sources, such as towing
companies, fire and rescue services, 511
systems, public safety answering points
(PSAP), and even social media and crowd-
sourcing applications such as the traffic and
navigation tool, WAZE, can also provide
data valuable to traffic incident management
(TIM) performance measurement.
Traditionally, the data generated by different
sources have been kept separate; however,
combining or integrating data can greatly
improve its value. For example, TIM
performance data from transportation
sources such as traffic management centers
(TMC), freeway service patrols (FSP), and
incident response (IR) teams is widely
available and can provide good information
regarding individual incidents, but coverage
is generally limited to urban freeway
systems, with perhaps some limited
coverage of major arterials. Incorporating
data from other sources can reveal the
larger picture.
Law enforcement is another source of
incident data, typically generated by
computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems or
crash reports. Law enforcement officers,
being present at most crashes, as well as
many noncrash incidents, are well situated
to provide high-quality incident data;
however, the forms they use often do not
contain the data elements needed to inform
national TIM performance measures, while
data from CAD systems usually do not
integrate well with other systems.
Several law enforcement agencies have
become involved in the collection of TIM
performance data. The Arizona Department
of Public Safety (AZDPS) is leading the
charge in Arizona. AZDPS started by
including data elements for the three TIM
performance measures in a supplemental
crash form in its electronic crash report, an
approach that can be used if an agency is
experiencing difficulty getting past the
Traffic Records Coordinating Committee
(TRCC) to modify the crash report. Later,
AZDPS worked with the States TRCC to
get these measures added to the statewide
crash report, and now the TIM performance
measures are collected statewide. The
Florida and Tennessee highway patrols have
taken similar steps to capture TIM
performance data in their States.
From the Federal Highway Administrations
(FHWA) perspective, law enforcement is
best equipped to provide the most complete
set of TIM performance data because law
enforcement officers attend the largest
number and greatest diversity of traffic
incidents, including, in most jurisdictions,
secondary crashes, which generally are
documented like any other crash using the
standard crash report.
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State of the Practice in Traffic
Incident Management Performance
Measurement and Reporting
In 2003, the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) launched the
annual Traffic Incident Management Self-
Assessment (TIM SA), a benchmarking tool
for evaluating traffic incident management
(TIM) program components and overall
TIM program success. The TIM SA contains
a number of questions regarding TIM
performance measurement in particular;
notably, these questions have consistently
yielded the lowest scores on the TIM SA.
Beginning in 2011, agencies were asked to
report data on roadway clearance times
(RCT), incident clearance times (ICT), and
secondary crashes as part of the TIM SA.
Each year, these data are input into the TIM
Performance Measures Database for annual
tracking and comparison to the 2011

Michigan DOT produces monthly performance measures reports, which include average
roadway clearance times (RCT) and incident clearance times (ICT), the number of incidents
by incident severity, and the number and percentage of secondary crashes.
Figure 2. Chart. Traffic incident management (TIM) performance measures from the Michigan
Department of Transportation (DOT).
(Source: Michigan Department of Transportation.)

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baseline. Of the 110 locations reporting to
the TIM Performance Measures Database,
only 13 percent reported on all three of the
national TIM performance measures, about
one quarter reported RCT and ICT, and
44 percent did not report on any of
the measures.
From a local or regional perspective, some
individual agencies and TIM programs are
collecting, analyzing, and reporting the TIM
performance measures internally as well as
to stakeholders. The Washington State
Department of Transportation (DOT) tracks
average ICTs for all incident response (IR)
program responses and reports this average
in its quarterly performance report known as
the Gray Notebook. The Virginia DOT
shows ICTs on its online performance
dashboard. Users can filter the data to show
ICTs by district, incident severity, incident
type, and time frame and can choose to view
the incident details, including individual
ICTs, or to display trends in ICTs over time.
The Freeway and Arterial System of Traffic
(FAST) generates a 30-60-90 RCT
calculation for the Nevada DOT, which
involves classifying the incidents and then
indicating if they were cleared within the
associated 30-, 60-, or 90-minute
clearance goals.
Challenges Presented by
Traffic Incident Management
Performance Measurement
Traffic incident management (TIM)
programs face a number of challenges
associated with performance measurement,
the most prevalent of which may be the lack
of timely, consistent, complete, and accurate
incident data. And while sharing and/or
integrating data across response agencies
can greatly enhance the data available for
TIM performance analyses, data integration
in and of itself is another challenge, both
institutionally and technically.
Further, many TIM programs already face
funding challenges, so convincing executive
management to devote precious resources to
data collection and analysis can be difficult.
Ironically, having the data and the analysis
results can actually support future funding
for TIM. From an institutional standpoint,
competing or misaligned objectives for
improving incident response and clearance
across responder agencies can also create
barriers for TIM performance measurement.
Enhancing Traffic Incident
Management Performance
Measurement through
Data Integration
As noted above, incident data derived from
different sources (within and between
agencies) generally are kept separate. Some
traffic management centers (TMC) have
been integrated with freeway service patrols
(FSP) and/or incident response (IR)
programs to improve traffic incident
management (TIM) data, and some TMCs
are integrated with law-enforcement
computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems. In
most of the TMC-CAD integrations,
however, TMC operators view the CAD
entries on their screens and must read, filter,
and manually enter the relevant data into the
TMC software. Few TMC-CAD integrations
have automated data entry.
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 This map shows the status of the national reporting of the three TIM performance measures
via the 2015 Traffic Incident Management Self-Assessment (TIM SA). Green dots represent
locations that reported all three measures, blue dots represent locations that reported two of
the measures, yellow dots represent locations that reported one measure, and red dots
represent locations that did not report any of the measures.

NOTE: Some agencies do collect/report the TIM PMs internally, on regular performance
reports, or statewide based on law enforcement data.
Figure 3. Map. Status of traffic incident management (TIM) performance measurement (PM)
reporting in agencies across the United States.

Data integration is a challenging task small portion of the incidents occurring

because databases are usually disparate or
incompatible. So why then would we want
to integrate data from a variety of sources?
Data integration offers many benefits when
it comes to measuring TIM performance and
having robust information to inform actions
and decisions. Data integration generates
information about more incidents as well as
more details about each incident.
Transportation data alone captures only a
nationwide, statewide, or even within a
region (e.g., incidents in certain cities, on
certain roadways, and during certain hours
of the day). Law enforcement data, while
overlapping transportation data to some
extent, provides data on many more
incidents (e.g., more roadways and 24/7
operations) as well as more details about the
incidents that are not captured by
transportation data. Integrating data from

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 The TIM PM tool contains the Guidance for Implementation of TIM Performance
Measurement, a common database schema and data dictionary, example applications of a
TIM PM database, and scripts for running queries and creating a TIM PM database.
Figure 4. Screenshot. The home page of the online Traffic Incident Management Performance
Management (TIM PM) tool.

other sources such as fire, emergency measures to generate more insightful

medical services (EMS), towing, or even
crowd-sourced data would further amplify
the power of TIM performance
measurement. While either transportation or
law enforcement personnel are likely aware
of or involved in all of these incidents, these
other sources are likely to capture different
data not available to or recorded by
transportation or law enforcement personnel.
The bottom line is that data integration adds
value to the data used in TIM performance
analyses, allowing agencies to go beyond
the aggregate analysis of three performance
findings that can be used to improve overall
program performance and support requests
for funds.
Resources to Assist Agencies with
Traffic Incident Management
Performance Measurement
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
leadership recognizes the crucial role
performance measurement plays in effective
traffic incident management (TIM), as well
as the challenges it presents. To provide

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clear guidance, share current practices, and Conclusion
support the implementation and
institutionalization of TIM Performance As we move deeper into the 21st Century,
Measurement (TIM PM) programs, FHWA agencies and organizations must collect
has developed a number of resources for more and more data to justify their
responder agencies. programs; for example, States will soon be
required to collect and report performance
Process for Establishing, Implementing, data as part of the Moving Ahead for
and Institutionalizing a TIM Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21).
PM Program. Understanding and improving upon traffic
TIM PM Check List of Data Elements. incident management (TIM) performance
will help States meet their overall
Making the Case for TIM PM brochure. performance goals in the areas of system
TIM PM outreach documents reliability and safety by reducing clearance
and presentations. times and secondary crashes.
A comprehensive TIM performance
In addition, as part of National Cooperative
measurement program requires buy-in,
Highway Research Program Project 07-20,
support, and input from more than just the
Guidance for Implementation of Traffic
agency leading the charge. It is important,
Incident Management Performance
therefore, to look for and capitalize on
Measurement, a beta database schema and
opportunities to discuss the importance of
data dictionary were developed to help guide
TIM performance measurement with TIM
agencies toward collecting the required and
partners, share TIM goals and objectives,
desired data elements for reporting TIM
discuss agency roles and coordination, and
performance. The database schema was a
seek to fill data gaps through data sharing
first attempt at creating a national standard
and integration.
for reporting TIM performance. Using the
schema and the data dictionary, agencies can
begin to map and integrate existing data sets
and databases in a consistent fashion. The
guidance is available via the TIM PM tool,
which can be accessed at
http://nchrptimpm.timnetwork.org/. The
supporting scripts for creating the database
are also available for download. The
guidance includes example applications of
the database, which include scripts for
querying the database.

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