Southeastern Wisconsin demands high quality transportation systems to provide for the safe, dependable, and efficient movement of people and products. Over twenty years
ago, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) identified the need to improve and expand the region’s freeway traffic management capabilities. Freeway traffic incident management was recommended as a critical activity to improve these capabilities. Since that time, a number of regional activities with incident management components have been initiated.
In August of 1995, the Traffic Incident Management Enhancement (TIME) Program [formerly the Southeastern Wisconsin Incident Management (SWIM) Program] was initiated by WisDOT to coordinate existing freeway incident management activities, and to develop a permanent, on-going program of incident management enhancements for the region.
Many technological resources to enhance incident management are Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). ITS draws upon advanced technologies and computer systems to improve and/or increase the capacity, safety, and efficiency of existing transportation systems. While ITS provides the technology for enhanced incident management, institutional relationships and efforts are also critical.
Data is being collected and tracked by Bureau of Traffic Operations, in
cooperation with the Traffic Incident Management Enhancement Program, leads a full, robust performance measurement
program. Measures include ITS hardware reliability, response times for Emergency
Transportation Operations, Freeway Service Team responses, Control Room
calls, 511 data, and others metrics.
