Is a Detour a Good Choice to Reduce the Commute Delay Caused by a Crash? A Case Study of I-24 Smart Corridor in Tennessee

Traffic congestion, caused by incidents such as vehicle crashes and lane closures, has been annoying to commuters. To reduce the delay caused by unexpected incidents, a detour might be a good option even at the cost of a longer travel distance. We used the smart corridors under the integrated corridor management program: Interstate 24 (I-24) and State Route 1 (SR-1) as a case study and examined the conditions under which detour decisions should be made. We collected 460 crashes and computed the travel time of the direct route (i.e., staying on I-24) and the detour route (i.e., using a stretch of SR-1). Three different detour scenarios were identified at a departure time: strongly recommended, alternative, and not recommended. Additionally, we classified the three detour scenarios into two groups: detour and non-detour by estimating the probability of detour scenarios following 1 h after the incident occurred. A bootstrap logit regression was conducted to determine the impact of various factors on the decision to take a detour. Several important findings are: (1) One-unit increase in injuries leads to a 59.1% increase in the likelihood of taking a detour. (2) When a crash occurs in peak hours, staying on I-24 smart corridor seems to be a better choice. (3) If a crash occurs in HELP patrol area, detour is highly discouraged. This research could provide insights into incident management and give commuters suggestions about the circumstances in which detour is a good choice.