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Traffic Incident Management Self Assessment

Preparedness > TIM > Traffic Incident Management Self Assessment

The purpose of the Traffic Incident Management Self Assessment (TIMSA) is to provide a formal process for State and local transportation, public safety and private sector partners to collaboratively assess their traffic incident management programs and identify opportunities for improvement.

In 2003, the Federal Highway Administration facilitated the initial assessments of Traffic Incident Management (TIM) programs in the largest 75 urban areas of the United States. Representatives of key transportation and public safety agencies and private sector partners in each area conducted the assessments.

The TIMSA is conducted in each urban area annually. These annual assessments have enabled state and local program managers and practitioners to evaluate their TIM programs and identify strengths and weaknesses in their programs in order to prioritize program activities and initiatives. Each year the new assessment is compared against the baseline established in initial assessments in 2003 and 2004 and against the previous year's assessment. At a national level the assessments enable FHWA to evaluate progress in traffic incident management and to identify national TIM program initiatives.

In 2008 and 2011 the TIMSA was revised slightly to incorporate performance metrics, organize and rephrase some of the questions to better align with the National Unified Goal for Traffic Incident Management and to the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

The assessment consists of questions covering the three main TIM program areas. These are:

  • Strategic - questions on with formal policies and understandings among agencies and TIM partners including performance measure and program evaluation
  • Tactical - questions covering on-scene response and clearance practices, traffic control and responder and motorist safety
  • Support - questions on interagency communications, data sharing, ITS for TIM and traveler information

FHWA publishes an annual National Summary report on the TIMSA aggregating data from all urban areas. The following are links to National Summary Reports for the TIMSA for 2003 through 2009.

  • Analysis of 2014 TIM Self Assessments (HTML, PDF 122KB)
  • Analysis of 2013 TIM Self Assessments (HTML, PDF 594KB)
  • Analysis of 2012 TIM Self Assessments (HTML, PDF 114KB)
  • Analysis of 2011 TIM Self Assessments (HTML, PDF 205KB)
  • Analysis of 2010 TIM Self Assessments (HTML, PDF 756KB)
  • Analysis of 2009 TIM Self Assessments (HTML, PDF 196KB)
  • Analysis of 2008 TIM Self Assessments (HTML, PDF 269KB)
  • Analysis of 2007 TIM Self Assessments (PDF 139KB)
  • Analysis of 2006 TIM Self Assessments (PDF 42KB)
  • Analysis of 2005 TIM Self Assessments (PDF 135KB)
  • Analysis of 2004 TIM Self Assessments (PDF 206KB)

Traffic Incident Management Self Assessment Tool

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