Benefits Analysis for Incident Management Program Integrated with Intelligent Transportation Systems Operations

Abstract

A methodology was established to assess the various benefits of an incident management program that is part of an advanced transportation management system. The methodology computes the benefits derived from the motorist assistance service, the reduction in delay, fuel consumption, secondary crashes, and the improvement in air quality attributable to the incident management program. A case study involving the Georgia NaviGAtor, Georgia's intelligent transportation system, reveals the resulting annual benefits of implementation of the methodology. The results indicated a substantial annual savings to motorists of 7.2 million vehicle hours of incident-related delay. The overall cost savings computed for a 12-month period during 2003 and 2004 was $187 million. On the basis of an annualized infrastructure, operations, and maintenance cost of the NaviGAtor system, the annual benefits-cost ratio was calculated to be 4.4:1.