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Executive Summary
Introduction
Reliability is defined in this report as consistency of travel times for a particular trip. Trav-
elers tend to estimate how long a trip will take based on parameters such as distance,
time of day, and their own experience. Impacts to the transportation network that cause
unexpected delays introduce uncertainty in travel time reliability.
The SHRP 2 Reliability focus area addresses reliability by developing specific proce-
dures, monitoring programs, and exploring alternatives to traditional traffic management
strategies. The L01 project focused on processes that directly affect network and travel
time reliability, particularly those processes that enable operational functions and in which
integration plays a significant part. The project identified the core of operations busi-
ness processes within transportation management that had day-to-day influence over
operations and network performance and, in turn, had positive impacts on travel time
reliability.
The project defined "business process" as a series of actions or activities that result in a
specific or desired outcome to accomplish a specific organizational goal. There are many
definitions of business processes, but in general these emphasize inputs, outputs, sequences
of events, and value-added results. The research focused on business process analysis that
was narrowed to key operational areas that have the most effect on travel time reliability.
These included the following areas:
· Incident management;
· Work zone management;
· Planned special-event management;
· Road weather management; and
· Traffic control and traffic operations.
The following were the key research objectives for this project:
· Identify and document practices that successfully integrated business processes to
improve travel time reliability;
· Define key business processes within DOT and transportation operations that were
linked to travel time reliability;
· Demonstrate how successful strategies and business process integration activities may
be adopted by other entities;
· Help agency managers identify critical gaps in their current processes, as well as
strategies to address these gaps, including combining and integrating processes to
achieve greater travel time reliability; and
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· Coordinate L01 research activities with other ongoing research within the SHRP 2 Reliability
focus area to extract the most innovative case study examples.
This research project used three key methods for input: literature review, case studies, and a two-
day workshop (1) that involved a panel of experts.
Ten case studies were conducted, and they comprised locations throughout the United States
and in the United Kingdom. The case studies were selected from an initial list of more than 50 pro-
grams and activities that was put together from the literature review, the research team's knowl-
edge of various operations programs, and the input from industry experts. These case studies
focused on process development and integration, types of congestion addressed, performance
measures, benefits related to reliability, and lessons learned. Table ES.1 describes the 10 selected
case studies.
A consistent approach to mapping business processes was required to analyze the identified
processes and identify key integration points within the processes. Various business processes and
their applicability to transportation agency processes were researched and the Business Process
Modeling Notation (BPMN) was selected. BPMN was developed to improve communication
between participants at the design level of a process with those at the implementation stage. It was
used in L01 to model the integrated business process for each case study that was considered.
Table ES.1. Case Studies
Case Study Description Participating Agencies
Washington State DOT Joint Operations Describes one of several programs the Washington State DOT Washington DOT
Policy Statement and Instant Tow and Washington State Patrol have implemented to support
Dispatch Program their Joint Operations Policy Statement for incident response
and management
Florida Road Rangers Describes the use of contracted private tow vendors and sponsors Florida DOT
to deliver a freeway service patrol program throughout the state
of Florida
United Kingdom Active Traffic Management Describes the pilot corridor for ATM strategies for recurring UK Highways Agency
congestion, as well as the incident response and management
program
North Carolina DOT Traffic and Safety Describes North Carolina DOT's evaluation process for major North Carolina DOT
Operations Committee work zones and traffic and safety impacts as a result of changes
in work zones
Michigan DOT Work Zone Traffic Describes the microsimulation model developed by the Michigan Michigan DOT
Control Modeling DOT to model the impacts of freeway construction closures
on an entire network
Kansas Speedway Special-Event Describes the development of traffic management procedures Kansas DOT
Traffic Management to support large-scale-event traffic at the new speedway facility
Kansas Highway Patrol
The Palace of Auburn Hills, Special-Event Describes the traffic signal timing plans developed specifically for Road Commission of
Traffic Management (Michigan) events at The Palace Oakland County
Auburn Hills Police
Department
I-80 Winter State Line Closures (California Describes the series of processes that are initiated by the Nevada Nevada DOT
and Nevada State Line) DOT to alert travelers when Caltrans closes the state line on
I-80 during winter weather events
AZTech Regional Archived Data Describes the evolution of a database initially developed to store Maricopa County
Server (Arizona) freeway data into a central repository for agencies to be able to DOT/AZTech
access real-time incident and traffic operations data
San Pablo Avenue Signal Retiming Describes a multiagency approach to developing corridor Metropolitan
(California) traffic signal timing plans Transportation
Commission
