Planning for active traffic management in Virginia : international best practices and implementation strategies.

Details

• Creators:
  Fontaine, Michael D. ; Miller, John S.
• Corporate Creators:
  Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Highway traffic control systems
  • Metropolitan planning organizations
  • Best practices
  • Transportation planning
  • Traffic congestion
  • Variable message signs
  • Ramp metering
  • Warning systems
  • Traffic congestion--Management
  • Transportation--Planning
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  VCTIR 13-R1
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Virginia
• Edition:
  Final report.
• Corporate Publisher:
  Virginia. Dept. of Transportation
• Abstract:
  Active Traffic Management (ATM) applications, such as variable speed limits, queue warning systems, and dynamic ; ramp metering, have been shown to offer mobility and safety benefits. Yet because they differ from conventional capacity ; investments in terms of cost, service life, and operating requirements, how to incorporate them into the planning process is not ; clear. To facilitate such incorporation, this study developed guidelines for considering ATM deployments. ; The guidelines consist of four sets. The first set identifies required infrastructure and operational conditions, such as ; sensor placement and queuing behavior, to apply a particular ATM technique at a given site. The second set presents sketch ; planning analysis methods to estimate the operational and safety benefits of applying the particular technique at the site; these ; may be refined with the third set concerning a more detailed (and accurate) simulation analysis. The fourth set concerns ; continued monitoring of an ATM deployment at a given site. Also provided is a framework for incorporating ATM concepts ; into the regional planning process. The framework is illustrated with a hypothetical case study of variable speed limits ; implemented on I-66 in Virginia. ; Although Virginia metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and the Virginia Department of Transportation already ; consider operational initiatives to some degree within the planning process, a key finding of this study is that there are several ; ways to strengthen the inclusion of operational initiatives. These include (1) using the guidelines developed in this study; (2) ; linking ATM initiatives to the MPO’s Congestion Management Process; (3) facilitating the computation of operational-related ; performance measures such as total vehicle- hours of delay; and (4) emphasizing, when applicable, the safety and environmental ; aspects of ATM. The rationale for such aspects is not to promote ATM as being more effective than other types of investments ; but rather to compare ATM objectively with these other types of investments. For example, Appendix A illustrates how to ; compute a benefit-cost ratio where costs include capital and operations expenditures for the ATM and where benefits include ; monetized values of vehicle-hours of delay plus crash costs. In this manner, the benefit-cost ratio for an ATM project may be ; compared to the benefit-cost ratio for other operational or capacity projects.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/25475/dot_25475_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 681.46 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bb4a5e99a456239b7f5c24ea209ff96173c5c77171ea784ffe8bb8c9e070d0cf02d058607bab65c42ac55fbf16e540c297d4192801377b3f3bbb4f6b9c8c39df