AN ANALYSIS OF FREEWAY EMERGENCY SERVICE SYSTEMS

A MODEL FOR A SYSTEMS ANALYSIS HAS BEEN DESIGNED FOR COORDINATED AND COMPREHENSIVE RESPONSE TO FREEWAY INCIDENTS. THE OPERATION OF AN EMERGENCY SERVICE SYSTEM FOR THESE INCIDENTS IS REPRESENTED IN AN ACTIVITY MODEL THAT DESCRIBES THE CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE OF EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES PERFORMED BY ITS MAJOR COMPONENTS: POLICE, REPAIR, FIRE, MEDICAL SERVICE. THE PERFORMANCE OF ALTERNATIVE EMERGENCY SERVICE SYSTEMS WAS EXAMINED ON THE BASIS OF COST AND EFFECTIVENESS. A SIMPLIFIED ACTIVITY MODEL WAS APPLIED TO SELECT A DETECTION AND SERVICE SYSTEM FOR A LINEAR URBAN FREEWAY WITH HEAVY TRAFFIC. STATIONARY AND PATROLLING UNITS FOR POLICE AND MECHANICAL SERVICES WERE ANALYZED IN DETAIL. BOTH DETERMINISTIC AND STOCHASTIC MODELS WERE DEVELOPED FOR DETECTION, TRAVEL TO THE SCENE OF INCIDENTS, ON-SITE SERVICE AND RETURN TO NORMAL POSITION. THE DETECTION TIME AND TIME OF ARRIVAL OF FIRST SERVICE WERE USED AS THE MEASURE OF EFFECTIVENESS (MOE) FOR THE INDIVIDUAL STRANDED MOTORIST, WHILE THE NUMBER OF VEHICLES DELAYED AND THE TOTAL DELAY DUE TO CAPACITY-REDUCING INCIDENTS SERVED AS THE MOE FOR PASSING MOTORISTS. CALL BOXES OR TELEPHONES AS THE DETECTION SUBSYSTEM COMBINED WITH STATIONARY POLICE AND MECHANICAL SERVICE UNITS, WAS GENERALLY THE MOST COST-EFFECTIVE SYSTEM. A HIGH DEGREE OF COORDINATION IS REQUIRED AMONG THE SERVICES IN ORDER TO PROVIDE MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY AT THE LEAST COST. /AUTHOR/

• Corporate Authors:

  University of California, Berkeley

  Operations Research Center, 3115 Etcheverry Hall
  Berkeley, CA  United States  94720
• Authors:
  • KELLER, H
• Publication Date: 1969-8

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Communication systems; Detection and identification; Detectors; Disasters and emergency operations; Freeways; Hazards and emergency operations; Mathematical models; Measures of effectiveness; Performance; Systems analysis; Traffic crashes; Traffic incidents; Traffic surveillance
• Uncontrolled Terms: Disabled vehicles; Effectiveness
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00225883
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Traffic Systems Reviews & Abstracts
• Report/Paper Numbers: Rpt Orc 69-20
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 7 1970 12:00AM