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FHWA Home / OIPD / Accelerating Innovation / Every Day Counts / EDC News: November 12, 2020

EDC News

November 12, 2020

EDC-6 Summit Preview:
Next-Gen TIM

The beginning of EDC-6 is just around the corner, and each week through the end of the year, we will give you a preview of the seven innovations being featured. This week, we will take a sneak-peak at next-generation traffic incident management (NextGen TIM).

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 6 million crashes occur every year in the United States. Each crash places responders, motorists, and those nearby at high risk of secondary crashes. Crashes and other roadway incidents severely congest roadways, straining travel reliability and commerce. Incident response also taxes local response workforces, taking valuable time from other community needs. Agencies around the country have used TIM programs to plan for and coordinate response to these events to improve safety and reduce incident duration and the congestion impact. Even agencies without a formal TIM program or a traffic management center can implement new TIM methods to save more lives, time, and money.

First responders gathered at a traffic incident. Digital signage, at right, tells drivers to "prepare to merge." Several first responders and a fire truck are positioned at left.
Next-Gen TIM helps improve responder decision-making. (Credit: Kimley-Horn)

NextGen TIM increases the focus on local agency TIM programs while integrating new and emerging technology, tools, and training to improve incident detection and reduce safety response and clearance times on all roadways. Traditionally, transportation agencies captured incidents where sensor technologies are installed, where safety service patrols are present, or when contacted by public safety/law enforcement agencies. NextGen TIM significantly expands this capacity. Agencies can improve TIM strategies by implementing new options like notification-based incident detection using crowdsourced data or back-of-queue warnings. Navigation-app notifications of nearby active responders can help travelers slow down, move over, or choose a different route.

Using unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in conjunction with NextGen TIM reduces traffic risk exposure for crash investigators and other responders and improves situational awareness, helping agencies better manage incident scenes and shorten crash investigations. Additionally, new data and analysis techniques will help agencies target training, intelligent transportation systems infrastructure, safety service patrol routes, and other aspects of TIM to reduce the overall incident clearance time.

By using NextGen TIM methods, State and local agencies can increase traveler and responder safety, improve trip reliability and commerce movement, and enable responder communities to focus more resources on other pressing citizen needs.

To learn more about NextGen TIM, contact Paul Jodoin or James Austrich with the FHWA Office of Operations, register for the EDC-6 virtual summit and attend the breakout session on Dec 10, or visit FHWA’s EDC website.

It's National Traffic Incident Management Awareness Week

Slow Down. Move Over. Be Safe.

National Traffic Incident Management Awareness Week reminds all of the importance of protecting our highway workers and responders.

Watch this video from FHWA Administrator Nicole R. Nason to learn more about the role all motorists play in incident management awareness.

Pennsylvania Data Show Crashes Drop at Roundabouts

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) data show that fatalities, injuries, and crashes decreased overall at 22 roundabouts built at 19 locations that were previously stop or signal controlled. The agency evaluated roundabouts with at least 3 years of crash data available before and after the roundabouts were built. The data show that fatalities at these locations were reduced by 100 percent, serious injuries dropped by 77 percent, and the total number of crashes decreased by 21 percent. In addition to the 22 roundabouts reviewed, PennDOT has built 34 other roundabouts on state routes and has over 40 more in design. PennDOT created a video to educate road users on how to use roundabouts, whether in a vehicle, on a bicycle, or on foot.

To learn how to implement roundabouts or other intersection safety innovations in your agency, contact

Join Us for the EDC-6 Virtual Summit

Registration is open for the EDC-6 summit. This year’s event will be held virtually in three half-day sessions on December 8, 9, and 10.

The summit brings together transportation leaders and frontline professionals responsible for developing and delivering highway projects. We welcome participation from all of our partners–State transportation departments, local agencies, Federal land management agencies, tribes, and industry.

Graphic with text- "EDC Virtual Summit, December 8-10, 2020. Register Today."

On the second day of the summit, presenters will feature products that can save money on preserving and repairing roads and bridges. These include targeted overlay pavement solutions (TOPS), which enable agencies to provide long-life performance to roadways approaching the end of design life and improve surface characteristics such as smoothness, friction, and noise; and ultra-high performance concrete for bridge preservation and repair–using a fiber-reinforced, composite cement material that offers superior strength, enhanced performance and improved life cycle cost over traditional bridge preservation and repair methods.

To learn more about the featured innovations and other events that will take place during the event, view the draft agenda here.

About EDC

Every Day Counts, a State-based program of the Federal Highway Administration’s Center for Accelerating Innovation, works with State, local, and private sector partners to encourage the adoption of proven technologies and innovations to shorten and enhance project delivery.

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Jeffrey A. Zaharewicz
Director
(202) 366-1325
Jeffrey.Zaharewicz@dot.gov


Page last modified on November 12, 2020
Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000