EMERGING PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCIES AND TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT CENTERS

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Transportation Management Centers (TMC) provide a lucrative partner for regional and statewide Emergency Management Agencies (EMA). Even before the events of September 11th, 2001, EMAs have been approaching TMC's in hopes of leveraging their access to surveillance and other key transportation service providers for "eyes-on-the-road" information without having to travel out of the emergency management center and in to harms way. This paper documents two recent efforts in the US by local and regional EMAs in their efforts to coordinate with and collocate within TMCs. The first case study is that of Columbus, Ohio where the county EMA desires to collocate with regional transportation resources, including transit, traffic signal, freeway and other safety operations. And a second case study is that of Chicago, Illinois where the city's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) plans is studying the feasibility of building a joint facility with the city's TMC. There are positives, negatives and differing reasons for wanting to combine EMAs and TMCs. This paper explains the reasons for each approach, assesses some of the advantages of these partnerships for both parties, and delves in to some of the hurdles the partners are working to overcome in achieving their respective goals.