Freeway Service Patrol Evaluation

Problem

The Freeway Service Patrol consists of teams of tow trucks that patrol highways and provide assistance to motorists. It is used in several places throughout the state for quick removal of incidents and to reduce congestion delay and other adverse effects from incidents on freeways. How well does the patrol work?

Method

We collected incident information for a section of freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area (in Hayward) using probe vehicles, loop detectors, the CHP dispatch system, FSP records, and tow truck company logs. In all, 276 hours of field data went into a unique, comprehensive database that represents a complete representation of freeway operating conditions. We were able to study and compare conditions both before and after the institution of the Freeway Service Patrol on this section of freeway

Findings

This study found that the Freeway Service Patrol increased the number of assisted incidents, and reduced response time and duration. The FSP is also cost effective in terms of incident delay and fuel consumption savings.

The response time for breakdowns where FSP assisted was cut by 57%; for all incidents, the response time went down by 35%. Accident and breakdown clearance remained about the same, as did incident duration. The reduction in assisted incidents is probably largely accounted for by a quicker response time because the tow trucks were already in the field.

Other benefits from the service which we did not quantify include time and cost savings to assisted motorists, improved incident detection, and a reduction in the amount of work the CHP has to do, allowing them more time for enforcement.

The effectiveness of FSP would be higher in places with similar incident patterns and a higher traffic volume, especially where there are mixed lands and narrow or no shoulders.