Evaluating Alternative Operations Strategies to Improve Travel Time ...

SHRP 2 L11: Final Report
Another important step is to reach agreement that funds generated by pricing would be made
available to improve all forms of capacity within the corridor in which they are collected. That
includes, in some cases, expansion of roadways. It also includes funding for operations and
funding for alternative sources of capacity, including improvements to transit service and parallel
arterials. Gaining the buy-in for these types of improvements and balancing these improvements
with expenditures will require time and effort. Equity concerns will likely be among the major
obstacles to road pricing, particularly income equity – the impacts of network-wide pricing on low
income travelers. Once the public and their leaders begin to understand the merits of road pricing,
equity will become addressable through a variety of paths, including providing better information
on travel and location options; offering alternative services; enhancing transit services, and
providing discounts and subsidies.
Steps to Strengthen Interagency and Intermodal Relationships
A more reliable roadway network requires the integration of arterial network operations with
adjoining freeway operation. This integration includes adjusting arterial traffic controls to account
for freeway performance. (This does NOT mean that arterials must sacrifice local performance in
favor of regional travel-time reliability. It does mean that local arterials need to operate differently
during times when adjacent freeways are unreliable.) Similarly, transit system operations need to
be an integral part of corridor demand and capacity management actions. The fact is that the
roadway network operates as a system which is independent of jurisdictional boundaries. Network
operators need to consider this to foster interagency cooperation.
Public agencies could consider the following five actions in the near term to foster the interagency
and intermodal relationships:
• Change the agency “culture" so that agencies work together (and perhaps even coalesce) to
achieve better system performance rather than working toward agency-specific goals.
• Strengthen relationships with neighboring jurisdictions, especially where improved
integration of facilities benefits both agencies (e.g., shared traffic operations centers, multiagency
incident response teams, and corridor management teams).
• Create and provide easily-accessed, standardized transportation system performance data to
those that need it.
• Work with the private sector to support community goals. (For example, encourage the
private sector to limit the amount of “cut through traffic” that occurs on residential streets
by avoiding the use of portable navigation devices to reroute traffic through local streets.)
• Work with private sector trip generators (i.e., all “events” that will generate trips) and
private sector information providers to obtain and disseminate better information on travel
demand fluctuations. Provide better coordination of demand management activities serving
those who wish to attend those events.
A key element that could help to strengthen interagency and intermodal relationships is the
consideration of corridor-based revenue sharing associated with a usage-based and a value-based
revenue generation structure.
A CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS Page 127