Traffic Incident Management
Various traffic incident management scenes - heavy traffic after accident, traffic planning, police car blocking road, overturned car on bridge, detour, rescue workers.
Office of Operations 21st Century Operations using 21st Century Technologies

Self-Assessment for TIM Programs

The purpose of the Traffic Incident Management Self-Assessment (TIMSA) is to provide a formal process for State and local transportation, public safety, and private sector partners to collaboratively assess their traffic incident management programs and identify opportunities for improvement. The TIMSA is now available year round, and it is now accessible online. Register here to complete the TIMSA.

In 2003, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) facilitated the initial assessments of Traffic Incident Management (TIM) programs in the largest 75 urban areas of the United States. Representatives of key transportation and public safety agencies and private sector partners in each area conducted the assessments. In the year 2020, 100 State and regional TIM programs completed the TIMSA.

States and Regions that completed the year 2020 FHWA TIM Self-Assessment - States
States and Regions that completed the year 2020 FHWA TIM Self-Assessment - States - Idaho, South Dakota, Iowa, New Mexico, Kansas, Mississippi, New Jersey, Hawaii and South Carolina. Regions within states that completed TIM Self-Assessment - Washington, Orgegon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Alaska, and Puerto Rico.

The TIMSA annual assessments have enabled state and local program managers and practitioners to evaluate their TIM programs and identify strengths and weaknesses in their programs in order to prioritize program activities and initiatives. Each year, the new assessment is compared against the baseline established in initial assessments in the years 2003 and 2004 and against the previous year's assessment. At a national level the assessments enable FHWA to evaluate progress in traffic incident management and to identify national TIM program initiatives.

In 2007, 2011, and 2015 the TIMSA was revised slightly to incorporate performance metrics, organize, and rephrase some of the questions to better align with the National Unified Goal (NUG) for TIM and the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The assessment consists of questions covering the three main TIM program areas. These are:

  • Strategic - questions on formal policies and understandings among agencies and TIM partners, including performance measure and program evaluation
  • Tactical - questions covering on-scene response and clearance practices, traffic control, and responder and motorist safety
  • Support - questions on interagency communications, data sharing, ITS for TIM, and traveler information

The graph below shows the number of programs completing the TIMSA and their average score.

The number of TIM programs and their collective average TIMSA scores reflects advances in TIM program maturity from 2003 through today. This graph reflects data in the subsequent table.

FHWA publishes an annual National Summary report on the TIMSA. The following table includes links to National Summary Reports for the TIMSA for 2003 through 2020.

Year
Number of Locations
Average TIMSA Score (out of 100)
Download the TIM Self-Assessment Report

2022

forthcoming

forthcoming

forthcoming

2021

93

72.4

forthcoming

2020

100

70

(HTMLPDF 249KB)

2019

94

73.3

(HTMLPDF 233KB)

2018

98

70.4

(HTMLPDF 249KB)

2017

98

68.3

(HTMLPDF 291KB)

2016

94

68.6

(HTMLPDF 113KB)

2015*

95

57.1

(HTMLPDF 323KB)

2014

99

74.2

(HTMLPDF 122KB)

2013

93

73.9

(HTMLPDF 594KB)

2012

104

70.2

(HTMLPDF 114KB)

2011*

93

68.2

(HTMLPDF 205KB)

2010

92

63.9

(HTMLPDF 756KB)

2009

86

60.6

(HTMLPDF 196KB)

2008

76

59.6

(HTMLPDF 269KB)

2007*

67

58.3

(PDF 139KB)

2006

70

57.7

(PDF 42KB)

2005

78

52.4

(PDF 135KB)

2004

78

47.7

(PDF 206KB)

2003

78

46.5

 

No Value

*Minor revisions to the TIMSA implemented these years.