Overview
The purpose of this guidebook is to increase communication, collaboration, and cooperation among Transportation Management Centers (TMC) and emergency response agencies so they can effectively respond to a variety of situations ranging from a localized traffic incident to major regional events such as hurricane evacuations. A description of TMC functions and resources relevant to emergency operations is included followed by sections describing the activities that take place during emergency operations, including pre-event, response and recovery, and post event.
The guidebook opens with a description of how TMCs currently support emergency response such as reporting on traffic conditions, and assessing transportation system damage. The TMCs are well suited to this role because they are the “hub of the transportation management system.” The guidebook also describes the various TMC preparedness activities that can help when an emergency occurs including detection and verification of incidents, dissemination of information, assistance with incident response, on-scene management, traffic control, coordination with maintenance activities, mapping and GIS resources, and access to archived historical data.