User's Manual for The Traffic Incident Management Benefit-Cost (TIM-BC) Tool (Version: 2.0)

1. Purpose

The purpose of this document is to describe to users how to use Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) Traffic Incident Management Benefit-Cost (TIM-BC) Tool Version 2.0, featuring eight sub-tools for various TIM strategies. The tool can be downloaded at the link from FHWA website.^[1]

2. Introduction

The TIM-BC tool was developed primarily to assist State and local engineers and decision-makers in conducting the associated benefits to costs estimations related to a wide range of TIM strategies and determine the return on investment.

The following are the requirements for use of the Web-based tool:

• 37MB hard disk space; Microsoft^® Windows^® operating system, versions XP, 7, or 8.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer^® browser version 10 or above, Google^® Chrome™ browser version 41 or above, Mozilla^® Firefox^® browser version 37 or above, and equivalent browsers.
• Microsoft Excel^® spreadsheet software.

If you are using a downloaded package of the software, after you unzip the package, go to folder “…\Production” and double-click “index.html” to open this tool. Alternatively, click the shortcut “LAUNCH THE TIM-BC TOOL” directly.

Data must be entered by the user in order to get estimates from the tool. These data are described in Section 3, Required User Inputs. If exact local values are not known for an entry, a general estimate can be made by using regional or national default values.

The web-based TIM-BC tool’s home page consists of a series of links for each of the eight (8) TIM programs through which users can navigate. This is shown in Figure 1 below. Each of these TIM programs also consist of a series of screens beginning with high-level program information, then with segment-specific information, and ending with a summary screen showing the calculated benefit elements and the benefit-cost ratio.

A description of each of the screens is discussed as follows. The user can move directly to any of these screens by clicking the button .

Figure 1. Screenshot. TIM-BC Tool Homescreen.

• Home Screen. Users can begin a new project or load an existing project file from this screen. Users can also click the “Learn More” link for resources about the tool, as well as click the button to see more information about the tool, such as whom to contact with questions or if issues are found.
• Project Name. This screen allows users to enter or modify the name of the current project.
• Project Details. On this screen, users enter project-level information, including the State in which the program is located, the number of segments in the program, the duration of the study period, the annual number of incidents on the program roadway, and the annual total program cost. The user can open a cost calculator to estimate a cost if the total is unknown.
• Segment Information. This screen allows users to enter the details about the specific segment of the program. If more than one segment exists in the current project, users can switch between segments on this screen. This screen requires the following types of input: roadway geometry, traffic information, incident information, and project operation time and incident duration savings. The list of all required inputs is included in Section 3, Required User Inputs.
• Project Output. This screen summarizes the calculated benefits and benefit-cost ratio of the program based on user inputs. It calculates benefits in terms of delay savings (in hours), fuel savings (in gallons), secondary incidents prevented, and emissions savings (MT (in metric tons)). Users can generate text reports with the results on this screen.