Making the Case with Public Officials

Do We Have To? Most public officials are used to dealing with capital improvements, not operational improvements Operational improvements traditionally do not compete well

Introduction Capital improvements (common views): –Are very visible (I see what I get for my money, and so do the taxpayers) –Cost money once and not again Because we often don’t think publicly about maintenance and operations costs

Introduction Must help decision makers understand –Operations keeps what you’ve already built operating efficiently –Incident Response is very visible –The public has a very high appreciation of incident response efforts

Your Job Show decision makers how operations and incident response is: –Beneficial –Visible –Cost effective

Incidents Prevent Efficient Use of Existing Facilities - Volume Accidents and incidents reduce vehicle throughput Thus the ability to use the expensive right- of-way you’ve already paid for is denied

Volume During An Accident Declines

Why Incident Management? Because of this accident at ~1:15 PM, more than three lanes of capacity was lost for three hours

Why Incident Management? What is less expensive? –building three more lanes of freeway at $100,000,000 per mile, or –providing $100,000 per year on-call tow truck to clear that accident in 20 minutes?

Why Incident Management Incident back ups are visible, and cause congestion to spread geographically, effecting people who may not even pass the incident scene

Congestion prior to an incident on I-5 2:50 PM

An accident has occurred in the HOV lane, just prior to 3 PM 3:00 PM

Incident response occurs quickly, but does not handle traffic control well (also 3:00 PM) Back up = ~1 mile

Fire Trucks and EMS are gone in just over 20 minutes 3:20 PM Back up = 3 miles

Last Disabled Vehicle Removed 3:37 PM Back up = 7 miles

HOV lane open To traffic, and last emergency vehicle leaves the scene 4:00 PM Slow downs = 12 miles Stop and go = 8 miles

Northern road sections clearing Southern sections now affected by PM commute traffic 4:40 PM

Working With Other Agencies Visuals also help illustrate (and eventually resolve) problems of working with other agencies

Accident in HOV lane Fire truck blocks left two lanes Fire truck blocks right lane Traffic flow in one lane Through the response personnel

Working With Other Agencies How to improve safety for all respondents Why do we want better flow around incident scenes? –Often secondary incidents occur in the back-up to an initial incident –Respondent safety is improved by limiting the time spent in the roadway –Reducing back up time/duration limits the occurrence of secondary accidents

Value of Coordinated Incident Response? Lack of coordination and training at this incident meant a 37 minute incident created a back up –Over 12 miles long (at its biggest) –With heavy congestion lasting over 7 hours (thanks in part to PM commute)

Value of Benefits Economic analysis of incident response program showed a 20:1 benefit to cost ratio (See: GrayNotebookJun-03.pdf#page=48) GrayNotebookJun-03.pdf#page=48

To Maintain Support Track what you do, and how it helps the public –Number of responses –Effect of those responses –Public reaction to your efforts

Frequency and Type of Incidents

Public Response "Great addition to traffic safety and keeping the traffic moving." - Richard Russell, Mukilteo Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Great use of Taxpayers dollars" - Cenni Reilly Olympia

To Maintain Support Speak plain English Address the issues of importance to the public –Safety –Delay –System reliability