A UW Human Centered Design and Engineering team is building the Virtual Coordination Center (VCC), a cloud-based platform for real-time data sharing and coordinated response to quickly clear roadway incidents—while preparing Seattle-area agencies for a collaborative response to major incidents. In summer 2023 the Washington state legislature approved approximately $2 million to maintain the VCC and expand it to up to five additional jurisdictions in King County. Work on the VCC began several years ago when regional public agency executives signed a charter establishing the Seattle Area Joint Operations Group and committing to “collectively design and implement a regional strategy for enhancing mobility and reducing impact when a major incident drastically reduces capacity along the Seattle I-5 corridor.” This integrated transportation community—including WSDOT, Seattle DOT, Seattle Police, Seattle Fire, Washington State Patrol, King County Metro, and Sound Transit—jointly participated in a process to design the cloud‐based VCC. A $3 million federal award has allowed the VCC regional partners to focus on deployment of the VCC and to develop a virtual collaborative working environment that includes integrated computer-aided dispatch, map-based situation awareness, a real-time incident alerting system, and coordinated interagency congestion management and public communication. When deployed, the VCC will dramatically reduce the time and increase the effectiveness of incident operations. It will provide a framework within which regional transportation, transit, and law enforcement agencies will be able to coordinate traffic management strategies using real‐time data.

Principal Investigator: Mark Haselkorn, Human Centered Design and Engineering, UW
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Travis Phelps
WSDOT Project Manager: Doug Brodin
Scheduled completion: December 2023