Seattle Traffic Incident Management Review

Seattle traffic incident management planning framework

Sam Schwartz was retained by the Seattle Department of Transportation following a traffic incident that closed the city’s Alaskan Way Viaduct for 9 hours one evening in March 2015. Coordination challenges between Seattle’s municipal agencies—including the Police Department and Department of Transportation—resulted in citywide gridlock and demands from the public and press to improve incident responses. Working in conjunction with a former Washington State police chief, Sam Schwartz was tasked with evaluating the City’s Traffic Incident Management (TIM) response protocols and providing recommendations for improvements.

The firm led a multi-agency workshop to identify key issues, and invited nationwide experts to participate and share best practices through a partnership with the National Operations Center of Excellence. It also provided the City a comprehensive report on best practices in TIM and a wide swath of recommendations with prioritization levels and timelines for implementation. Themes of the recommendations included establishing a formalized TIM program, training across agencies, improved coordination between police and DOT staff, use of technology to facilitate responses and incident clearance, and advanced planning on pre-planned alternate routes and travel modes during incidents. The consulting team presented its findings to Seattle’s mayor in June 2015.