Implementing the Results of the Second Strategic Highway Research Program Saving Lives, Reducing Congestion, Improving Quality of Life - Special Report 296 (2009) / Chapter Skim
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4 Reliability Focus Area
4 Reliability Focus Area
Pages 60-76
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From page 60... ...
Nonrecurring congestion causes highway users to regard the highway system as "unreliable." The complexity of congestion calls more for a dynamic operational perspective than for the static infrastructure perspective traditional to highway engineering. Addressing the problem also requires the active participation of both public- and private-sector entities.
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From page 61... ...
The Reliability focus area, described here, addresses a particular operational characteristic of highway systems that is related to nonrecurring congestion: travel time reliability. From the highway user's perspective, travel time reliability means the extent to which one can depend on completing a given trip within a consistent, predictable length of time.
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From page 62... ...
Such incidents may include police activity, broken-down or abandoned vehicles, debris on the roadway, and cargo spills (including spills of hazardous material, which require special safety and cleanup procedures)
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From page 63... ...
• Institutional change, human behavior, and resource needs: In any complex system, the human participants are a critical component. This area relates to how transportation agencies can evolve to reduce nonrecurring congestion and mitigate its impact through highway operations.
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From page 64... ...
The data, tools, and information about institutional and human behavior derived from research in the first two areas above will be consolidated and incorporated into the planning, programming, and design processes of transportation agencies. • Future needs and opportunities: The research in this area will focus on fostering innovative thinking that can form the foundation for long-term reductions in nonrecurring incidents and improvements in travel time reliability.
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From page 65... ...
Data, Metrics, Analysis, and Decision Support Research in this area will identify data types, measurement methods, and analysis tools and will develop an archive of travel time data, performance measures, and operational strategies. The archive will support transportation agencies at all levels in monitoring travel times and related reliability measures, developing and using performance measures and models, and evaluating actions aimed at controlling and mitigating nonrecurring con
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From page 66... ...
Institutional Change, Human Behavior, and Resource Needs In the area of highway operations and incident management, the actors are many and diverse: managers of highway agencies and their technical staff; the political leaders who provide authorization, budgets, and oversight; drivers; police, fire, and emergency medical personnel; tow truck operators; maintenance and construction workers; businesses; sponsors of special events; and weather forecasters. Reducing congestion related to nonrecurring events will require significant modifications of the internal organizational structures and business practices of transportation and public safety agencies.
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From page 67... ...
The second research effort will use video and other data collected in past studies and SHRP 2's Safety field study (see Chapter 2) to learn how drivers behave in work zones or in the vicinity of crashes, special events, or other incidents.
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From page 68... ...
SHRP 2 research in this area addresses the need for improved tools to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of infrastructure and operational countermeasures and to quantify the impacts of nonrecurring congestion on overall highway capacity. The research will link changes in performance measures to individual reliability improvement strategies so the effectiveness of those strategies in reducing congestion can be considered fairly as a substitute for or supplement to infrastructure-based capacity enhancements in the transportation planning and programming process.
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From page 69... ...
. Results of these analyses will be used to develop nonrecurring congestion factors for the Highway Capacity Manual and the AASHTO Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets -- standard reference materials for highway designers.
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From page 70... ...
Transportation leaders are potential users of a small but critical set of products: business process and institutional structures for travel time reliability and incident management, and performance monitoring systems. Incen
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From page 71... ...
The results of the driver behavior research will be useful to traffic engineers and public safety officials in improving traffic control for work zones and special events; incident managers will be able to develop better response techniques in such areas as vehicle placement and lighting. Incident response professionals would also benefit from joint training in safe and efficient procedures at incident scenes.
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From page 72... ...
Perhaps the largest potential barrier to implementation for the technical staff of transportation agencies is a lack of high-level awareness of the benefits of operational management approaches to congestion mitigation --
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From page 73... ...
. Management of incidents and special events as a strategy for congestion mitigation involves an array of nontransportation professionals mentioned earlier, including police, firefighters, tow truck operators, emergency medical personnel, and special event sponsors.
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From page 74... ...
Finally, private-sector providers of traveler information should find useful the results of the SHRP 2 research on how drivers use traveler information. The main barrier to implementation of SHRP 2 Reliability products by nontransportation professionals will be the diverse institutional cultures involved and the difficulty of getting these disparate groups to cooperate toward a common goal.
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From page 75... ...
A realistic and effective way to address the problem is to better manage the incidents that produce nonrecurring congestion and mitigate the associated impacts. These incidents, which include crashes, work zones, special events, and inclement weather, can increase congestion significantly and unexpectedly.
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From page 76... ...
2008. WSDOT -- 95% Reliable Travel Times.
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