Evaluating Alternative Operations Strategies to Improve Travel Time ...

SHRP 2 L11: Final Report
Business Practices Changes
Modifying the traditional business practices of transportation agencies will also help mainstream
the implementation of operational strategies to improve system reliability. To a large degree, the
organizational changes embodied in the CMM concept described above will also affect day-to-day
business practices in a positive way. Close collaboration with private entities is another business
practice that will yield significant benefits. The private sector is far more adept at taking risks and
implementing technological innovations and this is a strength to leverage Making agency resources
available to them (for example, historical databases), eliminating, or at least minimizing,
institutional barriers to private participation, and engendering a culture of collaboration and good
will among staff will greatly facilitate the development and deployment of technological
innovations.
Funding Changes
The transportation system will be most reliable when a balance is achieved between travel demand
and supply. Such a balance can be achieved when three conditions are present:
• More than one (and preferably many) travel option is available to each traveler, most
practical to achieve in urban areas;
• The cost of each travel option is known; and
• The traveler is responsible for the cost associated with whatever option is ultimately
chosen, including externalities.
There is a broad spectrum regarding the willingness of the public, government agencies and private
firms to pay, to act, to address equity issues, and to confront externalities such as carbon
emissions. The purpose of setting out the alternative futures and associated concepts of operations
is to provide readers, including decision makers, an opportunity to think about what type of
transportation system it is desirable to have in the year 2030, and develop a plan for achieving it.
Of particular concern in this study is how to deal with both recurring and non-recurring congestion
-- the delay and unreliability that occur at times and locations where congestion is severe or where
unexpected events occur such as an accident, a hazardous spill or a tornado severely disrupts
travel. Addressing these unexpected delays is a challenge in both urban and rural areas, for person
and freight movement, for different classes of road users and for system operators and managers.
A CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS Page 133