Good Practice Traffic Incident Management - San Antonio, Texas

On July 26, 1995, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) San Antonio District opened TransGuide, the San Antonio Regional Traffic Management Center (TMC). TransGuide serves the 12-county region in and around San Antonio, Texas. Through center-to-center communications, TransGuide links with other TxDOT TMCs. TransGuide provides information to motorists about traffic conditions, such as accidents, congestion, and construction. Using cameras, message signs, and fiberoptic communications, TransGuide detects travel times and responds rapidly to accidents and emergencies. TransGuide also uses this information to inform motorists of lane closures due to construction, maintenance, and traffic incidents.

One of the keys to effective incident management for TransGuide is the co-location of the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) within the TMC. The SAPD provides coordination for incident management between TxDOT and emergency responders in the field. Other partners in the TransGuide project include TxDOT, the City of San Antonio (police/fire/EMS/traffic), and VIA Metropolitan Transit (the region's transit authority). The personal interaction between the police and transportation responders is invaluable in promoting on-scene coordination, as well as understanding the roles of each agency, and the issues and constraints they face.

TxDOT created quick successes by adopting and implementing many of the coordinated traffic incident management strategies learned form the National Highway Institute Traffic Incident Management Training Course. The program includes Courtesy Patrol vehicles that are equipped with police radios to assist in coordinating and monitoring the incident scene. In addition the State has adopted and actively promotes its "Move-It" law with regard to the removal of vehicles that are involved in non-injury accidents and are drivable as well as its "Move-Over" law that requires motorists to shift lanes away form an emergency responder when possible.

The program is credited with reducing incident response times by 20 percent; saving up to 700 vehicle-hours of delay per incident, and decreasing fuel consumption by up to 2,600 gallons per incident. All of these numbers translate into annual savings of $1.65 million in 1995 dollars.