Citation

Levin M, Wierer JJ, McDermott JM. Transp. Res. Rec. 1977; 643: 48-54.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1977, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The state of Illinois has installed an experimental motorist-aid telephone system along 221 km (138 miles) of I-80 between Rock Island and Joliet. The system consists of 302 roadside terminals in pairs, one telephone in each direction of travel, at approximately 1.6-km (1-Mile) intervals. Before and after studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the system in terms of system use, response time, convenience, reliability, and costs. Sources for these data were stopped-vehicle surveys, state police assistance-rendered reports, service-unit assistance-rendered reports, a public-opinion survey, and a motorist-aid system-use survey. The major findings were that (a) approximately 24 percent of all I-80 aid candidates are using the motorist-aid system, (b) the average time between incident occurrence and police notification is reduced from 15.5 min in the before period to 12.8 min in the after period and to 9.6 min when the aid telephones were used, and (c) the cost-effectiveness of the system, considering accident reduction and time saved only, is in the 0.6 to 0.7 range for the total investment.