Evaluating Alternative Operations Strategies to Improve Travel Time ...

SHRP 2 L11: Final Report
CONCLUSIONS – BUILDING A RELIABLE FUTURE
Enduring and systemic improvements to the reliability of a transportation network can occur by
planning and design. However, this process will take time if the improvements are to be truly
enduring and systemic. Further, the plan of action from which these improvements emanate offers
significant benefits if it is be multi-dimensional in scope. More specifically, the plan needs to
address three important elements defining the overall Concept of Operations: organizational,
business practice, and funding. Plans that affect all three of these fundamental elements
simultaneously are ideal and will probably achieve the greatest amount of change; however, it is
also possible to achieve sustained and significant improvement by focusing upon only one or two
of these elements at a time.
The remainder of this section provides an overview of the organizational, business practices and
funding strategies that are needed to improve Year 2030 travel-time reliability.
Organizational Changes
Breaking down the communication silos that dominate current public agency organizational
structures has been a desirable goal for many years. Attempts to fine-tune these structures to
improve communication efficiency are frequent events. The problem with these fine-tuning efforts
is that they do not address either the breadth or depth of fundamental changes that will ultimately
be necessary if the 2030 vision is to be achieved. Broad-based integration across modes, functions,
jurisdictions, and data are the requisite foundation for building and maintaining a reliable
transportation network.
Significant new work has recently been completed within SHRP2 Project L06 (Institutional
Architectures to Advance Operational Strategies) that can become a blueprint for effecting the
organizational changes necessary for the broad-based and comprehensive implementation of
operational strategies to improve system reliability. Quoting from the L06 project work:
The research across state DOTs has resulted in the development of an
“Operations Capability Maturity Model” (CMM). The CMM is designed to
support agency and unit-level self-evaluation and identification of critical priority
“next steps to” putting TSM&O activities on a path to continuous improvement
and formal program status. It is not oriented just towards “start-up” programs—
but to organize improved effectiveness for TSM&O activities at any level of
development.
There is no black box “magic” about the CMM. The CMM concept was originally
developed in the private sector information technology industry and is widely
applied in the US and internationally as a means of improving the products and
services as related to effectiveness, quality, costs, schedule, and other key
performance measures. Basically it takes a lot of generally-recognized issues and
organizes them into a framework that focuses on the factors most essential to
effective TSM&O—and on logical improvement steps. The CMM offers a
transparent process for key players to mutually recognize key issues and reach
consensus on strategies to move forward. The CMM structure is now being
utilized as the organizing principal of the AASHTO Guide to Systems Operations
and Management under development. The CMM has already been used by several
state DOTs to support the development of strategic plans and programs to
upgrade TSM&O activities.
A CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS Page 132