Evaluating Alternative Operations Strategies to Improve Travel Time ...

SHRP 2 L11: Final Report
• an increase in revenue targeted at capacity enhancements where demand is high.
In order to implement these improvements, three steps are offered for consideration:
• Steps toward Balancing Demand and Capacity
• Steps to Strengthen Interagency and Intermodal Relationships
• Technical/Technological Steps to Improve Reliability
Steps Toward Balancing Demand and Capacity
If achieving more effective market-based strategies for both funding transportation and guiding the
expenditure of those funds is desired, it will require considerable effort. A number of actions can
be taken now to facilitate this shift:
• Educate the public and decision makers to generate the support necessary for the economic
management of roadway capacity. The case is often most readily made if there is a strong
connection between where revenue is generated and where improvements are made,
although expenditures could be targeted in other ways in the face of market inefficiencies
or equity reasons.
• Select performance measures and the ways that those performance measures are applied to
ensure that agencies and jurisdictions are accountable for their actions.
• Participate in more comprehensive demand management programs. (See inter-agency
cooperation below.)
Of particular significance is determining the base price-performance level that is acceptable. A
congestion-free HOT lane price is acceptable, since low cost/no cost general purpose lanes also
exist. However, pricing all roads to the point at which congestion does not exist and roads are
perfectly reliable in a currently congested urban area would require setting the price higher than is
acceptable for a large segment of the population.
So long as congestion does exist, some non-trivial level of travel time un-reliability will remain. A
part of gaining buy-in to the shift to a more market-based system involves finding the base price
point at which the balance between price and congestion is acceptable. That is, how much
congestion (and consequently how much variability in travel times) are we willing to live with,
versus how much money are we willing to pay in order to help manage the limited roadway
capacity that we have?
The answers to these basic questions will undoubtedly be different in congested urban areas and in
uncongested rural areas. These answers will also be different in areas where many travel options
exist, as opposed to areas where no acceptable travel options exist. Of significant interest will be
the response to pricing on roads in rural areas subject to seasonal (e.g., recreational) traffic
congestion. For areas where only limited pricing is possible, use of at least some of the funds to
dramatically improve traveler information (so that travelers know the nature of delays they are
likely to experience before they make their travel decisions) and improve operations (to minimize
delays and maximize reliability to the extent possible) may be the best mechanism for reducing
travel time uncertainty and improving travel time reliability. Better information will tell consumers
when travel times are not reliable.
A CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS Page 126