Incident response - Economic benefit
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Incident Response measures showing Economic benefit
Economic benefit
WSDOT IR teams' assistance at incidents resulted in millions of dollars in economic benefit to travelers and businesses in Washington by reducing congestion caused by traffic incidents and helping prevent secondary incidents. The cost of incident induced delay is the economic impact that occurred due to incidents. WSDOT estimates the cost of delay at $244 ($333 in 2023 value) per minute of incident duration for non-blocking incidents and $345 ($471 in 2023 value) per minute of blocking incidents based on research from the University of Washington's Transportation Center (TRAC)(PDF 2.2MB). WSDOT estimates the economic benefit of the IR program based on the amount of incident-induced delay and secondary incidents prevented through the intervention of IR teams assisting at incident scenes. For details on methodology to calculate economic benefit, refer to WSDOT's Handbook for Corridor Capacity Evaluation (PDF 5.9MB).
Source: Washington Incident Tracking System.
Note: Estimated economic benefits include benefits from delay reduction and prevented secondary incidents. Economic benefit values are adjusted to yearly inflation rate.
Performance highlights
In 2023, IR teams' assistance resulted in approximately $125 million in estimated economic benefit to travelers and businesses in Washington by reducing congestion caused by traffic incidents and helping prevent secondary incidents. This is 4.8% more than the $104.4 million in estimated economic benefit from 2022. In 2023, cost of incident induced delay was $286.2 million, which is 20.0% more than $238.5 million in 2022. Both economic benefits from IR program and cost of incident induced delay exceeded pre-COVID-19 pandemic periods.
In 2022, IR teams' assistance resulted in approximately $104.4 million in estimated economic benefit to travelers and businesses in Washington by reducing congestion caused by traffic incidents and helping prevent secondary incidents. This is 2.1% less than the $106.6 million in estimated economic benefit from 2021. In 2022, cost of incident induced delay was $238.5 million, which is 2.1% less than $243.7 million in 2021. Both economic benefits from IR program and cost of incident induced delay decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in less traffic on the roads and fewer incidents.
In 2021, IR teams' assistance resulted in approximately $106.6 million in estimated economic benefit to travelers and businesses in Washington by reducing congestion caused by traffic incidents and helping prevent secondary incidents. This is 14.3% more than the $93.3 million in estimated economic benefit from 2020. In 2021, cost of incident induced delay was $243.7 million, which is 15.0% more than $211.8 million in 2020. Both economic benefits from IR program and cost of incident induced delay decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in less traffic on the roads and fewer incidents.
In 2020, IR teams' assistance resulted in approximately $93.3 million in estimated economic benefit to travelers and businesses in Washington by reducing congestion caused by traffic incidents and helping prevent secondary incidents. This is 20.7% less than the $117.6 million in estimated economic benefit from 2019. In 2020, cost of incident induced delay was $211.8 million, which is 20.3% less than $265.8 million in 2019. Both economic benefits from IR program and cost of incident induced delay decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in less traffic on the roads and fewer incidents.
In 2019, IR teams' assistance resulted in approximately $117.6 million in estimated economic benefit to travelers and businesses in Washington by reducing congestion caused by traffic incidents and helping prevent secondary incidents. This is 7.2% more than the $109.7 million in estimated economic benefit from 2018. In 2019, cost of incident induced delay was $265.8 million, which is 6.7% higher than $249.1 million in 2018.