Making the Business Case for Traffic Incident Management

Chapter 2. Develop Vision

As shown in Figure 3, the vision should:

• Provide an organizational overview.
• State the problem or need.
• Identify the drivers for change.
• Introduce the proposed solution and options.
• Present desired outcomes.
• Demonstrate strategic fit.

Figure 3. Chart. Develop Vision section of traffic incident management business case development process.

(Source: AEM Corporation.)

By describing the business need and desired outcomes, a well-developed vision will help to establish the case for change and the need for investment.

Provide an Organizational Overview

The organizational overview should include a high-level description of the organizational structure, as well as information on the agency and traffic incident management (TIM) missions, strategic vision, goals, and business objectives. Other information within the organizational overview might include current activities and services, audience, and key stakeholders.

Organizational Structure

The organizational structure of TIM programs varies greatly from one program to the next. Some states have well established TIM programs that operate as their own office within the agency, while other TIM programs are housed between or within other agency offices, such as maintenance or operations. The organizational structures also vary depending on the size of the TIM program and whether it is staffed by state personnel or contractors. (S. Joshua, "Seeking Support & Funding for TIM at the MPO: Lessons Learned, Maricopa Association of Governments," in Presentation at TRB Workshop, Washington, D.C., 2015.) Example descriptions of organization structures include:

• At the agency level of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), the traffic operations function is separate from maintenance and operations. In the two busiest regions (Seattle and Tacoma), incident response (IR) falls under traffic operations and is regarded as being an activity of high importance. Because of this structure, these regions are able to put more emphasis on TIM, as it is not "burdened" by being under, or in competition with, other programs, such as maintenance. However, in the other four, less populated regions where there is less traffic and fewer incidents, IR falls under maintenance and operations. As such, a different level of importance is placed on TIM, and incident response can fall behind other activities deemed to be more important. (W. Legg, Interviewee, TIM Business Case Interview - WSDOT. [Interview]. 30 November 2015.)
• The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is a centralized agency. TIM has an informal structure comprised of Georgia NaviGAtor and the Highway Emergency Response Operators (HERO) incident response units, and it is housed within the Office of Traffic Operations under the Division of Permits and Operations. While TIM activities are currently constrained to the metro Atlanta area, GDOT is considering expanding the TIM program outside of the urban area. However, given the centralized nature of the agency, expanding TIM is likely to come with new challenges. (A. Heath, Interviewee, TIM Business Case Interview - GDOT. [Interview]. 7 December 2015.)
• The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) has several operational offices that report to the chief engineer. The Office of The Coordinated Highways Action Response Team (CHART) and ITS Development, which is Maryland's TIM program, began in the Office of Safety and evolved to become its own office with a board of directors to include multiple SHA Offices along with other key stakeholders. This structure allows for broad stakeholder representation in key decisionmaking and future planning of the TIM program goals and objectives. (J. Griffin, Interviewee, TIM Business Case Interview - ODOT. [Interview]. 4 February 2016.)

The description of the organizational structure in the business case may also need to reflect the current political climate or culture. For example, in the more rural Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) regions, the culture had been that the maintenance staff handled incident response - a part of the job that they enjoyed. Therefore, even though a vacant maintenance position would have allowed ODOT Region 3, District 8 to hire a dedicated incident responder, the maintenance crews were opposed to doing so, as giving up a maintenance position came with many unknowns. (J. Griffin, Interviewee, TIM Business Case Interview - ODOT. [Interview]. 4 February 2016.)

Understanding and explaining how the TIM program fits into the overall organizational structure, culture, and political climate, and how these in turn affect the TIM program, is an important component of setting the stage for the business case.

Traffic Incident Management Business Objectives

Compared with the primary private sector business objective of generating revenue, public sector business objectives deal more with addressing the needs of the public in an economically responsible and efficient manner. Transportation agencies are in the business of keeping people and goods moving in a safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible manner. As TIM is usually a program within an overall agency structure, TIM business objectives need to align with the overall agency mission, vision, goals, and business objectives. TIM business objectives should also be overarching to include all of the various agencies involved. (FHWA, "Traffic Incident Management Gap Analysis Primer," U.S. Department of Transportation, Publication FHWA-HOP-15-007, 2015.) Based on conversations with various agencies, TIM business objectives within their organizations were articulated as follows:

• In the early days of the Maryland CHART Program - a cooperative effort of the Maryland SHA, Maryland Transportation Authority, and the Maryland State Police, in cooperation with other Federal, state, and local agencies - the primary business objectives were to help disabled motorists and to manage congestion during incidents. Recognizing the safety and mobility effects of incidents, CHART's mission-critical primary objective is now clearing incidents as quickly as possible, which aligns with the Maryland Department of Transportation's (MDOT) overall objectives of improving safety, mobility, and travel time reliability. (A. Marquess, Interviewee, TIM Business Case Interview - CHART. [Interview]. 30 November 2015; and J. Sagal, Interviewee, TIM Business Case Interview - CHART. [Interview]. 7 December 2015.)
• The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) provides guidance and assistance to agencies within the nine-county, bi-state, greater Philadelphia area to build a sustainable and livable region. DVRPC's main TIM business objective is to coordinate and facilitate discussions that help to address the issues and connect people that can impact change in the region. (L. Matkowski, Interviewee, TIM Business Case Interview - DVRPC. [Interview]. 2 December 2015.) Regional TIM stakeholders include the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), the regional freeway service patrol (FSP) program, and the Pennsylvania and New Jersey State Police.
• The number one business objective of the Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT) TIM program is to reduce secondary crashes, with quick clearance of incidents as a close, but secondary, objective. FDOT notes that reporting the reduction of secondary crashes and serious injuries to the legislature is very helpful in making the case for its TIM activities. (M. Wilson, P. Clark and J. Frost, Interviewees, TIM Business Case Interview - FDOT. [Interview]. 11 December 2015.

Current Activities and Services, Including the Audience and Key Stakeholders

The vision should include a short description of the current activities and services, including the associated audience and key stakeholders. In the case of a small TIM program, activities and services may be limited to a few service patrols during weekday peak periods, while in the case of a large TIM program, activities and services may include traffic management centers (TMCs), 24/7 FSP operations, active TIM coalitions, and more. It is important to detail the current activities and services in the business case in order to help position and justify the proposed investment within the current environment. For TIM, the beneficiaries are the traveling public, commercial traffic, and TIM responders. Stakeholders include other responder organizations (e.g., law enforcement, fire and rescue, tow operators), high-level decisionmakers, and elected officials. Higher-level TIM decisionmakers and elected officials are the primary audience for the business case; therefore, another consideration at this stage should be how, when, and with whom the business case products are to be shared. The specification and enumeration of the target audience and stakeholders will help to focus the development of the business case and the business case products to best suit these audiences.

In addition to identifying the audience and key stakeholders, it is also prudent to engage them both during the development of the vision and throughout the business case development lifecycle. The engagement of key stakeholders, in particular, can go a long way in supporting the success of the proposed investment. Maryland's CHART program has made it a priority to engage key stakeholders, working together with other responder organizations in ways that will benefit the operations of both or all involved parties. For example, CHART purchased a new crash reporting technology system for the State police out of the TIM operations budget. This system benefits the State police operations and also helps improve CHART's incident response numbers. (A. Marquess, Interviewee, TIM Business Case Interview - CHART. [Interview]. 30 November 2015.) Chapter 4 - Formalize - provides more specific direction on engaging both the community and partner organizations.

State the Problem or Need

The business case should contain a brief, compelling, service-oriented problem or needs statement, which is presented in the context of the current environment. This statement should be no more than one or two sentences. The three general approaches to developing a problem or needs statement are:

1. Describe the current situation and explain the adverse effect. Highlight the problems, difficulties, and inadequacies of the status quo (e.g., shortfalls in vision, goals, or objectives).
2. Describe how the world is today and how the world will look tomorrow when the proposed change is implemented.
3. State what the case is proposing and describe why it is being considered. Why now?

Identify the Drivers for Change

The business case should identify what has triggered the investment proposal. Both internal and external drivers for change should be identified and clearly linked to the business need. Internal drivers for change could be related to knowledge, resources, capabilities, or desires. External drivers for change could be political (laws and regulations), economical, technological, or customer/stakeholder related.

Often times in the case of TIM, the driver for change is a catastrophic crash that causes significant delays and/or results in multiple injuries or fatalities. For the Seattle Department of Transportation, the driver for change occurred in March 2015, when an overturned truck on the Alaskan Way Viaduct blocked traffic for nearly nine hours and caused significant traffic delays throughout the Seattle area. This event highlighted the lack of a consistent citywide approach to TIM and brought forth the need for comprehensive TIM plans, policies, and training. (H. Marx, B. Rosenblatt, A. Sandberg and S. Schwartz, "Traffic Incident Management: Lessons Learned in Seattle," in NOCoE/NACTO Joint Webinar, October 21, 2015.)

For the Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS), the number one driver for change toward performance measurement was that police officers were still being struck at incident scenes, despite efforts toward improvement in this area. Between 2000 and 2010, 10 officers were killed at incident scenes, six of which started out as minor, routine incidents. In 2010, it was apparent to the AZDPS that in order to be able to determine if TIM strategies were improving safety, more emphasis needed to be placed on collecting TIM performance measures. (K. Pecheux and R. Brydia, "Guidance for the Implementation of Traffic Incident Management Performance Measurement," National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 07-20, Transportation Research Board, National Academies, 2014.)

For ODOT Region 3, District 8, the driver for change in the approach to incident response was an increase in incidents on weekends. With no dedicated resources for incident response, maintenance employees were assigned to cover weekend hours to handle incidents. At one point, staff were being called out so frequently that three different maintenance groups had to assign staff to weekend shifts to avoid paying overtime. This led to inefficiencies in scheduling and conducting maintenance activities - using maintenance staff on the weekends for operations-related business left them understaffed during the week - which is what drove the need for a dedicated incident response staff. (J. Griffin, Interviewee, TIM Business Case Interview - ODOT. [Interview]. 4 February 2016.)

Introduce the Proposed Solution and Options

Once the problem or need has been clearly stated and linked to the drivers for change, the business case should introduce the proposed solution, objectives, and options considered (if applicable). Be sure to articulate the boundaries of the investment for each option. The scope of the business case clarifies what is to be included or excluded from each option.

If the business case is being developed to maintain the existing TIM program and funding levels, then two alternatives may suffice:

• The base alternative of the continued expenditure of capital resources consistent with the past.
• The "No TIM" alternative that would eliminate funding and allow the dissolution of the TIM program.

If the business case is being developed for a significant new TIM capability, there may be multiple alternatives. For example, in considering investment for an FSP program, two levels of FSP equipment investment and three options for hours of service may result in six alternatives for consideration.

AZDPS proposed an innovative solution regarding the need for improved TIM performance. AZDPS worked through the Arizona Traffic Records Coordinating Committee (TRCC) to add 15 blank fields to the Traffic and Criminal Software (TraCS) tool used to complete crash reports. This approach allowed AZDPS to incorporate the three national TIM performance measures into the tool without changing the crash form, a longer and more arduous process that would have delayed the ability to collect the data. The use of these blank fields in TraCS made it easy for AZDPS to incorporate the time stamps for roadway clearance time (RCT), incident clearance time (ICT), secondary crashes, and a few other TIM performance measures of interest to AZDPS. This approach allowed troopers to easily collect the data at incident scenes while adding other data fields onto the crash form. Several years later, in July 2014, the TRCC and the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) approved and adopted the changes to the statewide crash form.

The solution proposed by ODOT Region 3, District 8 to improve maintenance and incident response efficiencies within the district was to hire a dedicated incident response staff to cover incidents from Wednesdays through Mondays and to put the weekend, on-call maintenance staff back on regular maintenance crews.

Present Likely Business Outcomes

A likely business outcome is the expected result or benefit that the organization is striving to achieve at the end of an intervention or change. Outcomes answer the question, "What are we trying to achieve?" Potential outcomes are the reason for undertaking a project and are therefore critical to a successful business case. For the TIM business case, outcomes should be clearly defined, measurable, and developed with stakeholder involvement. Key TIM benefits from the transportation perspective can be categorized within mobility, safety, efficiency, environmental, and traveler assistance.

Mobility benefits include less travel delays and greater travel time reliability for motorists. Safety benefits include increased safety at incident scenes, fewer secondary crashes, fewer crashes involving responders, and quicker arrival of emergency medical services (EMS) during the critical hour for those injured. Efficiency benefits include reduced incident durations, more efficient use of roadway capacity during incidents, and reduced personnel or equipment costs from more efficient responses. Environmental benefits include less fuel consumption and less emissions. Traveler satisfaction benefits include reduced cost of towing/assistance to motorists, frequency and valuation of assistance to motorists, and improved customer satisfaction.

For the proposed dedicated IR program, ODOT laid out a number of clearly defined and measurable outcomes and associated measures, which were aligned with ODOT's overall statewide goals using the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Traffic Incident Management Handbook and Best Practices in Traffic Incident Management documents. (FHWA, "Traffic Incident Management Handbook," U.S. Department of Transportation, Publication FHWA-HOP-10-013, 2010; and FHWA, "Best Practices in Traffic Incident Management," U.S. Department of Transportation, Publication FHWA-HOP-10-050, 2010.) The expected outcomes were:

• Increased responder safety (by reducing on-scene exposure).
• Enhanced inter-agency cooperation and relationships.
• Decreased response time to incidents.
• Reduced incident duration.
• Reduced cost and risk exposure to the traveling public.
• Reduced associated congestion (delay).
• Fewer secondary crashes.
• Enhanced district maintenance and operations efficiency.

The measures included:

• Total hazardous incident density and hazardous incidents by type.
• Time spent and number of events responded to by crew type and work shift.
• Budget saved from reduction in maintenance crews for after hour call-outs.
• 90-minute clearance time performance for crash and fatal crash incidents.
• Average incident response times for regular work shifts.
• Reduction in risk of secondary crashes.
• Estimated cost of incident delay.

Demonstrate Strategic Fit

To make a robust case for change, the business case should demonstrate how the proposed investment fits within the organization's broader strategic context and contributes toward its goals and objectives. A strong business case will emphasize that the proposed solution is aligned with established organizational policies and processes.

ODOT had a 2011 I-5 corridor plan that specifically stated that by 2013/2014, there should be dedicated incident response along I-5 to help with congestion management. The plan stated that incident response vehicles should be deployed to patrol I-5 during peak crash periods in order to address operational and safety concerns. (David Evans and Associates, "I-5 Rogue Valley Corridor Plan," Oregon DOT, Roseburg, OR, 2011.) In making the case for the dedicated IR program, ODOT Region 3, District 8 referenced this corridor plan, which ultimately played a significant role in the approval of the pilot test. (J. Griffin, Interviewee, TIM Business Case Interview - ODOT. [Interview]. 4 February 2016.)

At the end of this phase of the business case development process, much of the information that eventually will need to be presented in the business case products will be complete. The checklist that follows identifies these information pieces. After this phase, the agency will begin the analysis needed to justify the proposed investment. This analysis is important to determine additional pieces of key information that are necessary to use in the business case development product.

Another next step for agencies is to consider the type of products that will best meet the needs of their stakeholders and decisionmakers. This consideration is important when determining how the structure and graphics of the business case products will look.