Traffic Incident Response Practices in Europe

Effective response to traffic incidents can enhance safety and mobility for both road users and responders. The Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and National Cooperative Highway Research Program sponsored a scanning study of traffic incident response practices, procedures, and technologies in England, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. During its study, the scan team observed several common attributes among the organizations in each country involved with incident response. They include a national authority with responsibility for coordinating incident response, national transportation agencies with traffic patrols that respond to incidents, clear jurisdictional responsibility for the police authority responding to incidents in an area, coordinated training for all major incident responders, and national auto clubs that provide roadside repair and towing services. The team developed 25 recommendations for potential implementation in the United States. They include adopting a national goal for incident response, developing national guidance on incident response performance measures, and establishing Transportation Operations Centers of Excellence for incident response research. The recommendations are aligned with the focus areas of the National Traffic Incident Management Coalition, which plans to participate in implementing the team's recommendations.

• Record URL:
  http://international.fhwa.dot.gov/tir_eu06/index.cfm
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/50022
• Corporate Authors:

  American Trade Initiatives

  P.O. Box 8228
  Alexandria, VA  United States  22306-8228

  Federal Highway Administration

  Office of International Programs, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Hawkins Jr, H Gene
  • Conrad, John
  • Helman, David
  • Brewster, Rebecca
  • Corbin, John
  • deVries, Henry
  • Jones, Gregory
  • McGinnis, Kevin
  • Moore, Ron
  • Olson, Mark
  • Tibbits, Larry
  • Zezeski, Michael
• Publication Date: 2006-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 56p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Incident management; Recommendations; State of the practice; Study tours; Traffic incidents
• Uncontrolled Terms: Incident response
• Geographic Terms: England; Europe; Germany; Netherlands; Sweden
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Research; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01029066
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-PL-06-002
• Contract Numbers: DTFH61-99-C-005
• Files: NTL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jul 14 2006 3:52PM