Authors: WOON KIM , MARK FRANZ & GANG-LEN CHANG
Date: April 2012
Abstract:
To improve traffic conditions on major highways plagued by non-recurrent congestion, most highway agencies have invested their resources in two principal operational programs: incident response and clearance, and traffic impact management. However, even with the wide-spread implementation of such programs, effectively minimizing the traffic impact caused by multi-lane blocked incidents remains a critical and challenging issue for most highway agencies. This research developed a multi-criteria decision-support system for determining the necessity of detour operations during incident management from an overall socio-economic benefit perspective. The developed system enables responsible agencies to consider all associated critical factors with preferred weights, including the direct benefits and operational costs, safety and reliability, accessibility of detour, and acceptability by travelers. This research is part of our developed integrated incident managing system for SHA that has various essential functions, ranging from prediction of incident duration to estimation of operational benefits. This decision module, based on the AHP (analytical hierarchical process) methodology, features its computing efficiency and operational flexibility, allowing users to make necessary revisions if more data are available or more criteria need to be included.
