Evaluating Alternative Operations Strategies to Improve Travel Time ...

SHRP 2 L11: Final Report
Technical/Technological Steps to Improve Reliability
It is difficult to identify which technical improvements are likely to have the greatest impact on
travel time reliability by 2030. This is because it is difficult to forecast technical improvements 20
years into the future, especially those that will result in quantum improvements in traffic
operations. As noted in the USDOTs Congestion Management process, technical improvements
will occur in four basic areas:
• improved capacity from both targeted infrastructure improvements and better operational
controls (See, for example, the new operational strategies evaluation tools developed under
the SHRP2 - C05 Project.)
• reduced occurrence of incidents through improved vehicle technology, supported by
targeted infrastructure improvements
• improvements in the speed of roadway recovery from incident-induced capacity losses
• better balance between travel demand and available capacity through better demand
management.
The USDOT Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) program has considerable potential to
contribute to many of these areas. But, the simplest technical aspects of the Vehicle Infrastructure
Integration (VII) program highlight the major technical improvements that are likely to contribute
in all of these areas: better sensors, better communications and sharing of data collected from those
sensors, and better control and response systems that take advantage of those shared data.
Consequently, the following six technological steps could be taken now to enhance travel-time
reliability:
• Make data that are already collected widely available to partners. (See the previous section
on strengthening interagency and intermodal relationships.)
• Ensure that data collected from new systems can be and are widely shared by establishing
common architectures and open data sharing agreements.
• Actively look for partners, particularly in the private sector, that can provide data that is
already collected which can be useful for improving the demand/capacity balance.
• Actively seek partners, particularly in the public sector, that can leverage data already
being collected to improve the demand/capacity balance.
• Establish and use performance measures computed from those data to identify (1) the
actual causes of unreliable travel time in the areas specific to the agency and its partners
and (2) the effectiveness of technologies, responses, and actions that are implemented to
improve travel time reliability. That is, use the transportation network strategically as a
laboratory to continue to learn what works and what does not work in a particular setting.
• Develop and apply more robust traffic management and traffic control strategies to
improve facility operations, better coordinate those facilities, and improve the use of those
facilities through cultivation of “smarter” users.
A CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS Page 128