Integrated Corridor Management

Challenge

As our urban areas continue to grow, the management of all transportation assets within metropolitan corridors is becoming increasingly important. From day-to-day traffic congestion during rush hours to major highway incidents to evacuation of an entire region during a hurricane, transportation agencies are seeking better ways to utilize and manage their corridors more effectively.

Solution

In most metropolitan areas, it is common to find multiple agencies responsible for traffic management, incident response, public transportation and emergency services. These agencies are as diverse as traffic management centers for individual cities, local police forces, state highway patrols, county sheriff departments, bus and rail providers and ambulance service providers. Typically, the systems used to manage the operations of these agencies were deployed independently of one another; with the effect of creating individual silos of information.

Take the case of a major incident on a heavily-traveled freeway in a metropolitan region. If traffic is routed onto the surface streets, it may end up creating severe congestion there and impacting the transit networks. Depending upon the severity of the congestion and the jurisdictional boundaries of the metropolitan area, multiple transportation management agencies may be affected, with each agency equipped only to make local decisions and to provide local support.

Or, consider the effort required to mobilize all of the public transportation assets during the evacuation of a major metropolitan area. Not only must all forms of viable mass transportation be utilized, but the transit assets and infrastructure must be managed cohesively and effectively to move the population to safety.
To help solve these problems, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is leading the Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Initiative. This initiative is providing support and guidance to eight Pioneer Sites around the country as they develop and deploy the institutional arrangements, operational capabilities, and the intelligent transportation systems and technical methods needed for an effective ICM system.