ITS and incident management: a problem in fragmented governance

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) programs have introduced new strategies for minimizing the social impacts of traffic incidents. ITS has funded programs for sensing the flow of traffic, detecting incidents through changes in flow characteristics and diagnosing incident severity through closed circuit television. To date, ITS programs have supported incident management strategies that focus on pretrip and en-route information for the driving public. Of limited consideration has been the application of ITS technologies to activities taking place at the incident site. First responders depend upon mobile cellular calls sent free of charge over emergency number systems for incident detection. First responders´ communications centers receive the cells and often process them by hand. The message is sent from the intake officer to the dispatcher by foot. At this point the message is sent over low band two way radio into the distortion and shadow areas created in hilly metropolitan areas. Each of these functions can be improved through the use of ITS. Each function can be integrated into state Departments´ of Transportation procurement and personnel management practices such that both regional and an site incident management work together to reduce congestion