A Discrete Event Simulation Model for Freeway Service Patrol Program Planning and Evaluation Considering Different Patrol Schemes and Parameter Settings

摘要

As an efficient incident management approach, the freeway service patrol program has gained widepopularity in respect to its effectiveness of fast incident detection, rapid response and quick incidentclearance. However, recent budget cuts have increased the need to develop systematic planningprocedures of the program to ensure appropriate resource allocation and achieve maximum benefitswithin the budget limits. A discrete event simulation model in Arena was developed to model the patrolprocess that includes districting, incident generation, and response vehicle dispatching and routing. TheInterstate-95 freeway in South Florida was used as a model application example and the optimizationresults show improved performance compared to the even length districting used before and the currentlyapplied even activities districting. Besides the traditional roving scheme, the model also has the capabilityto investigate the pre-positioning schemes. Impact of the operation parameter settings was assessedthrough the sensitivity analysis. The application example presented in this study indicates that the modelcould produce valuable results to streamline the patrol program, and could be applied to new freewayservice patrol program planning, as well as operation evaluation.