Freeway Service Patrols: A State of the Practice

Abstract

Freeway service patrols have been cited as one of the most effective elements of an incident management program for reducing incident detection time and incident duration. Service patrol programs utilize roving vehicles to patrol congested and high incident sections of urban freeways. The state of the practice of freeway service patrol programs in the United States is documented in this paper. A telephone survey was conducted with managers of 53 freeway service patrols in 22 states. Approximately 74 percent of the surveyed service patrols are sponsored exclusively by public agencies. Approximately 47 percent of the surveyed patrols are sponsored exclusively by Department of Transportations; 6 percent are sponsored exclusively by police agencies; and 21 percent are sponsored by multiple public agencies. Approximately 34 percent of the patrols receive federal support funding. Finally, 27 percent of the patrols operate with private funding sources. Service patrol hours of operation vary from program to program, with the most common being coverage of the weekday a.m. and p.m. peak periods. Approximately 70 percent of the surveyed agencies own and operate their own vehicles, whereas 26 percent contract with private tow companies to provide drivers and vehicles. Benefits associated with service patrols are typically quantified by multiplying a value of time by the estimated delay reduction provided by the service patrol in vehicle-hours. Available benefit to cost analyses for 15 of the service patrols studied ranged from 2:1 to 36.2:1. A contact list and recommendations for agencies interested in starting a new service patrol program are also included in this paper.