Good Practice Traffic Incident Management - Atlanta, Georgia

The 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and the steady growth of traffic and resulting congestion helped to focus attention on traffic management and the management of traffic incidents in the Atlanta area. Georgia has successfully addressed three of the key Traffic Incident Management elements of the USDOT Congestion Initiative. Georgia DOT rungs an aggressive HERO service patrol that provides a number of functions at incident scenes working with other responding agencies to clear incidents quickly as well as providing assistance to stranded motorists. The service runs 24 hours a day on weekdays.

Georgia also has a driver removal laws called "Steer It and Clear It" that required drivers involved in crashes to move their vehicles out of travel lanes unless there are significant injuries or the vehicles cannot be moved because of excessive damage. The Georgia law also says that drivers who fail to comply with the law will be ticketed. The requirement for drivers to move their vehicles not only enhances their safety by reducing the likelihood of a secondary crash, but also provides better safety for responders because they are proving assistance at a location off of the travel lanes.

Georgia's Open Roads Policy is a high-level policy agreement among State and local agencies that binds them to work together to clear traffic incidents quickly from Georgia's roadways. The policy contains a performance goal of clearing all incidents within 90 minutes.