Synthesis of Procedures to Forecast and Monitor Work Zone Safety and Mobility Impacts

Administrative Final Rule CFR Part 630 Subpart J Work Zone Safety and Mobility requires that state transportation agencies (STAs) develop policies to investigate the safety and mobility impacts as early as possible in the project development process. The rule provides some flexibility by allowing each state to set its own procedures and policies to comply with the rule and by allowing states to seek solutions which are commensurate with the severity of the potential impacts and require the most aggressive planning for Significant Projects. This report provides a synthesis of what is currently being done by STAs across the country to plan, manage, operate, and evaluate work zone safety and mobility. The research to develop this synthesis was broken into three distinct steps. The first step was to review the literature regarding work zone safety and mobility strategies. The second was to conduct interviews with staff members at 30 STAs. The last step was to conduct more detailed case studies of three STAs. The authors found that only California and Ohio (there may be more states than this, but these were the two discovered) had really thought about work zone impacts throughout the life-cycle of project development and project delivery and had documented the roles and interactions between different offices. Most agencies interviewed lacked objective performance data, although many described processes where they have experts review and evaluate work zones on a periodic or continuous basis

Determining optimal police patrol deployments: a simulation-based optimisation approach combining agent-based modelling and genetic algorithms

One of the most important tasks faced by police agencies concerns the strategic deployment of patrols in order to respond to calls whilst also deterring crime. Current deployment strategies typically lack robustness as they are often based on tradition. As police agencies are encouraged to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their services, it is essential to devise advanced patrol deployments that are based on recent scientific evidence. Most existing models of patrol deployments are too simplistic, and are thus unable to provide a realistic representation of the complexity of patrol activities. Furthermore, past studies have tended to focus on individual aspects of patrol deployment such as efficiency, reactive effectiveness or proactive effectiveness, rather than consider them all together as part of the same problem. This thesis proposes to develop a decision-support tool for informing better patrol deployment designs. This tool consists of a simulation-based optimisation approach combining two key components: (1) an agent-based model (ABM) of patrol activities used to evaluate the performance of the system under a given deployment configuration and (2) a genetic algorithm (GA) which seeks to speed up the search for optimal deployments. While the developed framework is designed to be applicable to any police force, a case study is provided for the city of Detroit in order to demonstrate its potential. The developed decision-support tool shows considerable potential in informing more cost-effective patrol deployments. First, the ABM of patrol activities allows for exploration of the impact of various deployment decisions that police agencies are unable to experiment with in the real world. Second, the GA makes it possible to optimise patrol deployments by identifying 'good' solutions, which provide faster responses to incidents and deter crime in key areas, in reasonable time

Management science and information technologies in U.S. local governments: A review of use and impact

As management science and information technologies increase in importance in local governments worldwide, it is necessary to assess their evolution and impact, and to draw conclusions relevant to their future use. A historical overview of these "management technologies" is presented, along with an assessment of their current contributions and problems. Suggestions are made for their improved use in local governments both within the United States and internationally. © 1982

Performance analysis of time-dependent queueing systems: survey and classification

Many queueing systems are subject to time-dependent changes in system parameters, such as the arrival rate or number of servers. Examples include time-dependent call volumes and agents at inbound call centers, time-varying air traffic at airports, time-dependent truck arrival rates at seaports, and cyclic message volumes in computer systems.There are several approaches for the performance analysis of queueing systems with deterministic parameter changes over time. In this survey, we develop a classification scheme that groups these approaches according to their underlying key ideas into (i) numerical and analytical solutions,(ii)approaches based on models with piecewise constant parameters, and (iii) approaches based on mod-ified system characteristics. Additionally, we identify links between the different approaches and provide a survey of applications that are categorized into service, road and air traffic, and IT systems

Integrated Management of Emergency Vehicle Fleet

The growing public concerns for safety and the advances in traffic management systems, that have made the availability of real-time traffic information a reality, have created an opportunity to build integrated decision support systems that can improve the coordination and sharing of information between agencies that are responsible for public safety and security and transportation agencies to provide more efficient Emergency Response Service. In an Emergency Response System, reduction of the duration of response time can yield substantial benefits. The response time plays a crucial role in minimizing the adverse impacts: fatalities and loss of property can be greatly reduced by reducing the response time for emergencies. In this dissertation, we have developed an integrated model that can assist emergency response fleet dispatchers in managing the fleet. This model can help reduce the response time and improve service level by specifically accounting for the following: Vehicle Deployment: given real-time information about the status of the emergency response fleet, traffic information and the status of emergency calls, select proper fleet assignment schemes that satisfy various operation requirements. Vehicle Routing: given real-time traffic information, provide real-time route guidance for drivers of dispatched vehicles. This goal is achieved by applying various shortest path algorithms into the solution procedure. Planning and Evaluation: given the status of the fleet and the frequency of emergency calls in various areas of a region, the model can help evaluate the performance of the current system and help plan for potential sites for the relocation of vehicles and allocate an appropriate fleet of vehicles to these sites. The vehicle deployment problem is formulated as an integer optimization problem. Since this problem has been shown to be NP-hard and because of the nature of emergency response, we developed heuristics which can provide quality solutions with short computational times. Several test algorithms are proposed to solve the emergency response vehicle deployment problem. Different methods for obtaining lower bounds for the value of objective function are analyzed in this dissertation. To evaluate the performance of the system under various scenarios, a simulation model is developed. The simulation system is calibrated based on real-world data. The results of simulation and analysis show the proposed system can effectively improve the emergency response service level. Application of this model in facility allocation illustrates its usage in other relevant operational scenarios

Police patrol deployment in small urban centers: an application of integrated management decision-making

This dissertation was undertaken to examine and review the theoretical issues concerning decision-making. From this analysis, a new and innovative technique for problem-solving was developed, entitled Integrated Management Decision-making. The underlying theoretical framework of this model involved the integration of the organization and the environment. Political, economic, social, cultural, and other community factors were discussed as major influences in the decision-making process. Integrated Management Decision-Making was derived from the combination of four existing theoretical perspectives: (1) decision-making is a process; (2) decision-making involves the ability to make rational choices; (3) decision-making involves the ability to make rational choices; (3) decision-making assumes a systematic methodology; and (4) decision-making is conducted by human beings attempting to achieve a desired consequence or result. Further, this study addressed the application of this new model to the task of police patrol deployment in small urban centers. The City of Jonesboro, Arkansas was used as a test case for the demonstration of this process. After examining over 8,300 radio-dispatched calls for service in 1980, a method for deployment was proposed utilizing Integrated Management Decision-Making. The statistical techniques of Multiple Response Analysis and Kruskal-Wallis Analysis of Variance by Ranks were utilized to explore the relationship between existing patrol procedures and proposed deployment design based on specific allocation variables designated by the police manager. The objective of the new deployment plan was to achieve an optimum patrol scheme with equalized workload between districts. This involved the determination of several decision-products: (1) the calculation of an assignment-availability factor; (2) the design of sector boundaries; (3) the calculation of shift requirements; and (4) the assessment of patrol strategies and techniques. This goal was achieved and recommendations for the Jonesboro Police Department were developed. Finally, Integrated Management Decision-Making was discussed as a catalyst for change in current police management thinking. Futuristic concepts of organization-environmental learning, long-range planning, and strategic modeling were suggested as necessary improvements in police decision-making

Quantitative models for police patrol deployment.

Thesis. 1975. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alfred P. Sloan School of Management.Vita.Includes bibliographies.Ph.D