Airport Curbside and Terminal Area Roadway Operations (2010)

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1ACRP Report 40: Airport Curbside and Terminal Area Road- way Operations (the Guide) is intended to assist airport opera- tors and others in analyzing airport terminal area roadway and curbside operations. The Guide presents guidelines for estimating airport roadway requirements and capacities, rec- ommended performance measures, valid and useful analytical methods, and potential measures to improve terminal area and curbside roadway operations. Purpose of the Guide This Guide is intended for use by three primary user groups. The first user group consists of airport operators, including the staff responsible for planning, design, and day-to-day opera- tions of airport terminal area and curbside roadways. The sec- ond user group includes city, regional, and state transportation planners who may not be familiar with airport roadway oper- ations. The third user group consists of airport consultants who are engaged to conduct planning, environmental, design, and other projects on behalf of airport operators and other sponsors. Some users may have significant experience with air- ports or aviation, but little familiarity with traffic engineering or transportation planning principles. Other users may have experience in traffic engineering and transportation plan- ning, but little knowledge of airport operations. This Guide is intended to assist both groups. For users unfamiliar with airports, the Guide describes the unique operating characteristics of airport terminal area road- ways and curbside areas, and how their operations differ from those of urban streets and regional highways. The Guide pre- sents methods for estimating existing and future airport road- way requirements and alternative methods for analyzing operations on airport roadways. Methodology The Guide was prepared under the direction and guidance of the project panel. The Guide reflects information gathered through an extensive literature review and the performance of more than a dozen focus groups of airline passengers, airport landside operators, and the drivers of commercial ground transportation vehicles serving airports. The definitions of curbside and weaving area levels of service included in this Guide reflect the input and comments received during the focus group sessions. Traffic volumes gathered during a week-long survey period at Oakland and Washington Dulles International Airports were used to develop and validate new macroscopic models for analyzing and evaluating airport curbside roadway operations and low-speed weaving, as described in this Guide. The draft Guide and the macroscopic models were reviewed by represen- tatives of these two airports and other airports. Organization of the Guide This Guide consists of six chapters and seven appendices (see www.TRB.org for Appendices B through G). Chapters 2 through 6 are summarized below: • Chapter 2, Framework for Analysis of Airport Roadways and Curbsides, describes the types of vehicles and roadways typically found on airports and their unique operating char- acteristics. An overview is provided of (a) the hierarchy of analytical methods—quick-estimation methods, macro- scopic models, and microsimulation methods—presented in Chapters 4 and 5 of this Guide—and (b) the concepts of capacity and level of service, as presented in the 2000 High- way Capacity Manual (HCM). • Chapter 3, Estimating Airport Roadway Traffic Volumes, describes the data required to analyze existing roadway traf- fic operations and ways to gather these data. Two alterna- tive methods for estimating future roadway requirements are presented, along with the challenges inherent in each method. C H A P T E R 1 Purpose, Methodology, and Organization of this Guide

• Chapter 4, Analyzing Airport Terminal Area Roadways, presents definitions of levels of service for airport termi- nal area roadway operations and a hierarchy of analytical methods for analyzing terminal area roadway operations, including low-speed weaving areas, capacities, and levels of service. • Chapter 5, Evaluating Airport Curbside Operations, pre- sents definitions of levels of service for airport curbside roadway operations and a hierarchy of analytical methods for quickly estimating curbside roadway capacities and lev- els of service, including a macroscopic model—the Quick Analysis Tool for Airport Roadways (QATAR) developed during this research project. • Chapter 6, Improving Airport Curbside and Terminal Area Roadway Operations, presents examples of commonly occurring airport curbside and roadway operational prob- lems, describes potential improvement measures, and overviews steps for analyzing and evaluating airport road- way improvements. The Guide also contains seven appendices as follows: • Appendix A: Glossary of technical terms used in the Guide. • Appendix B: Bibliography of resource documents reviewed for this research project. • Appendix C: Summary of Terminal Area Roadway Traffic Volume Surveys conducted as part of this research. • Appendix D: Summary of Curbside Roadway Traffic Char- acteristic Surveys conducted as part of this research. • Appendix E: Summary of Focus Group Surveys of airline passengers, airport landside operators, and the drivers of commercial ground transportation vehicles serving air- ports conducted as part of this research • Appendix F: A Reproduction of Portions of TRB Circular 212 presenting the Critical Movement Analysis for signalized intersections and the application of this analysis method • Appendix G: Overview of QATAR Curbside Analysis Methodology presenting the use and application of this model as well as the spreadsheet model itself. 2