Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley

The Freeway Service Patrol (FSP) is an incident management program implemented by Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol and local partner agencies to quickly detect and assist disabled vehicles and reduce non-recurring congestion along the freeway during peak commute hours. The first FSP program was piloted in Los Angeles, and was later expanded to other regions by state legislation in 1991. As of June 2004, there were ten participating FSP Programs operating in California, deploying over 315 tow trucks and covering over 1,500 (center-line) miles of congested California freeways.

The purpose of this research project was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Caltrans FSP program in reducing incident durations and removal of other obstructions that directly contribute to freeway congestion for Caltrans fiscal year 2003-2004. The project provides valuable information to agencies managing the FSP program so that resources are distributed within the various statewide FSP operations in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. The tools used and the operational performance measures provided by this research effort will significantly contribute on the ongoing agencies’ efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the FSP program.