abstract
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Freeway incident management has become an important issue in departments of transportation nationwide. While incidents on freeways cannot be prevented entirely, the implementation of an effective incident detection and management system can mitigate the impacts of the resultant congestion.
It has long been known that the weakest elements of incident management programs are the Automated Incident Detection (AID) algorithms and the incident recovery phase, particularly the utilization of traffic diversion strategies. An Incident Management Plan (IMP) was recently developed for Idaho’s Treasure Valley corridor, which identified possible diversion routes and established incident response plans for a wide range of scenarios. The Treasure Valley includes the cities of Boise, Garden City, Meridian, Eagle, Kuna, Star, Middleton, Nampa, and Caldwell in Ada and Canyon counties. To maximize the benefit of these diversion routes, effective signal control and management strategies need to be devised that use the actuated controllers already deployed in the I-84 corridor.