Incorporating ITS Into the Transportation Planning Process: An Integrated Planning Framework (ITS, M&O, Infrastructure) Practitioner's Guidebook (2002)

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I INTRODUCTION The world and consequently, the issues that transportation decision making and planning must address is changing: • Between 1990 and 1998 vehicle travel increased 72% while road miles increased only 1%. Congestion increased accordingly. Public transit is also growing at unprecedented levels causing overloading in many areas. • Disruptions and incidents are causing more and more delay. Recently it was reported by TTI in the 2001 Urban Mobility report that in urban areas incident delay makes up 54% of all delay. In small areas the percentage is even greater at 60%. • Events such as the tragedy that occurred on September 11th 2001 are causing a shift in priorities and new focus on such things as system management and operations, safety, and security, especially in response to unusual events. • New Governmental requirements are emerging for conformity to the National ITS Architecture, and incorporating efficient management and operations of the system in planning. • ITS systems because of their cost, their region-wide and system perspective and potential to provide improved performance and customer satisfaction are bridging the gap between planning and operations. • Dedicated funding for ITS and/or modal systems is being phased out by the Federal government. All of these point to the need to bring the ITS and operations and planning worlds together and integrate them into an overall transportation and decision making process. Recognizing this, a number of pioneering regions and planning organizations have begun to incorporate ITS into parts of their planning processes (See: Mitretek, 1999b; Deblasio, et.al., 1998; Siwek, 1998, AMPO, 1998). Some highlights are: • San Francisco: The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), created a Systems Operations and Management Committee that developed a regional Management Strategy. It focuses on management of the transportation system operations and uses ITS as a key component. System management is reflected in the region’s overall goals and throughout its planning process (Dahms, L. & Klein, L., 1999). • Chicago: The Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS) established the Advanced Technology Task Force to facilitate and coordinate between its myriad of operating agencies as well as the private sector. It’s mission statement includes, “ … to prepare a long-range vision and medium and short-range plans … for the development and integration of ITS in the transportation system serving Northeastern Illinois”. The task force was responsible for the regions strategic early deployment plan for ITS. (Zavattero, D. & Smoliak, A., 1996). • Hampton Roads/Norfolk Virginia: Planners and operators have combined to form a joint committee chaired equally by the State and MPO. They developed the region’s ITS strategic plan that includes ITS strategies for both the short and long-term time frames, and are using ITS data collection and system performance to update plans on a regular basis. • Washington D.C.: The Metropolitan Washington Council Of Governments (MWCOG), has developed a new vision, goals, and objectives to “ use the best available technology to maximize system effectiveness” (Meese, A.1998). • Phoenix: Maricopa County Arizona, has developed a multi-layer approach to incorporate ITS into its programming and budgeting process for development of the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). This process includes development of Candidate Assessment Reports, Design Concept Reports, and TIP Design Projects. (Fowler, T. 2000.). In spite of these pioneering efforts and the potential of ITS to address the new issues and concerns that have emerged from our changing world, considerable challenges to incorporating ITS into the transportation planning process still remain. Primary among these are the continuing gaps in perspective, institutions, and INTRODUCTION I-2

funding between those that operate and maintain our transportation system from day to day (e.g. traffic and transit operations, maintenance) and those that plan, design, and construct our transportation facilities and infrastructure (the focus of conventional planning). Technical hurdles also exist on how to estimate benefits and costs of conceptual and how to compare and evaluate decisions that trade off or combine system management and operation and new or expanded facilities and infrastructure. However, if the new concerns of the changing world are to be met our decisions must combine what the system will be (facilities and infrastructure) with how it will operate, and most important how it will be managed. Existing and emerging ITS technologies and services are providing new capabilities to manage our transportation system and respond to events as they happen instead of simply operating to meet normal conditions. There is consequently a need to build upon the experience of the above pioneers and others to strengthen the ties between ITS, management and operations, and the transportation planning process. This Guidebook is the main product of the NCHRP Project 8-35: Incorporating ITS into the Transportation Planning Process which was initiated to develop guidance on integrating ITS (and operations) into overall transportation planning and decision making. The purpose of the Guidebook is to provide up to date information on: the need to integrate ITS and transportation planning; Federal and other regulations, processes, and reporting requirements, to do so, and recommendations on how to move from today’s practice to an integrated approach. This version is targeted towards the “practitioners” that are responsible for supporting the decision process and “working out the details” to make sure that both decisions are made and the transportation system continues to move forward on a day-to-day basis. These include professionals and others in charge of planning and programming transportation projects, and operating and maintaining traffic, transit, and ITS systems. The companion, Executive Guidebook, provides a summary of the details provided here aimed at senior managers and public policy makers responsible setting overall transportation policy, allocating resources, and making the major decisions on the direction our transportation system will take. The Guidebook is built upon four major perspectives, which are: • Incorporating ITS into transportation planning is virtually equivalent to incorporating management and operations: ITS is aimed at responding to current conditions to manage the transportation system. While management and operations may expand beyond ITS, implementing and operating ITS provides the capability to manage the transportation system in many ways previously impossible. • Transportation planning goes beyond the Federal process: ITS and other operational strategies often have not been Federally funded, or part of the traditional, infrastructure oriented, transportation planning process. However, they are now beginning to have long-range and system-wide impacts at a level similar to significant infrastructure improvements. The overall decision process must therefore go beyond current Federal requirements and consider all components and strategies that are part of the transportation system and its operations. • There is no one solution: Different contexts require different approaches to integrating ITS and Planning, not simply different ITS deployments. These include both different organizational/institutional and technical/analytic ways to responding to the problems, issues, resources, and authorizing environments that practitioners face in developing solutions to their region’s transportation problems. The Guidebook is designed to help discern what approach may be appropriate and where. • Both ITS (operations) and planning must evolve: Integrating ITS (and management and operations) with transportation planning cannot be done simply by making ITS strategies fit within current planning practices. It requires that the decision-making process for both planning and operations change in significant ways. The principles and concepts underlying the Guidebook are described further next. An overview of the organization of the Guidebook is then provided. This includes a brief summary of how to use the Guidebook and the topics covered in each of its sections. INTRODUCTION I-3

I.A SCOPE OF GUIDEBOOK: TRANSPORTATION PLANNING AND DECISION- MAKING Broadly defined, transportation planning needs to involve all the components of the transportation system – facility and infrastructure expansion, operational planning, public/private participation, communications systems, day-to-day operations, maintenance, and system management decisions and their impacts. It no longer can focus on capital and infrastructure projects only, but also should address operating strategies and how they change the performance relationships of the transportation system itself. Consequently, the Guidebook extends “Transportation Planning” to encompass all transportation-related decisions that determine what the transportation system will be how it will operate. This is far broader than the usual definition of planning – i.e., the development of long-range plans. Under the definition used here: planning means not only comparing alternative futures and deciding which future is best, but also it means comparing alternative “paths” to reach toward the desired future. It encompasses short- range decisions that may have long-term implications for the system and how it will function, plus short-range decisions that affect how the system functions in the immediate future. As shown in Figure I-1 transportation planning goes beyond the Federally defined transportation planning processes and its associated documentation requirements. Many if not most, ITS projects emerge from locally funded decisions and systems and are not part of the Federal process or the MPO and State planning to support it. Other ITS projects may be advanced as short-term operational improvements and are perceived to be the prerogative of the owner/operator of the system. Increasingly, the private sector is also involved in providing ITS and other services critical to the performance of the transportation system. Figure I-1 Transportation Planning and Decision Making Also, as ITS systems are implemented and integrated into the transportation system, the decisions made today affect the decisions that can be made tomorrow. The operational strategies and ITS that have been deployed enable new systems that may be built on top of them. More importantly, they also change the operational relationships (e.g. capacity and delay associated with a specific traffic volume) and travel INTRODUCTION I-4

behavior, which then changes what infrastructure and other systems that may be needed in the future. Consequently, planning and programming can no longer focus primarily on the long-range system and how it performs, assuming today’s operating characteristics and relationships. Planning requires a new emphasis on determining the best development/operation paths for the future system. I.B NEW PROBLEMS – NEW SOLUTIONS The growing interest in ITS and its ability to help manage and improve the operation of the transportation system is not as some planners have stated “a solution looking for a problem”. New goals and measures should not be added to the transportation planning process simply to justify ITS. Rather, problems, issues, constraints, and requirements (and continue to do so) that need to be reflected in today’s goals and measures. Increasing congestion, inability to expand, impacts of accidents and other events, and demands for information all lead to a new reality that is increasing the interest managing and operating the system more efficiently and consequently ITS. The policy environment and issues external to surface transportation has changed radically over the last two decades while the conventions of transportation network services have hardly changed at all. Issues and factors that have emerged include: • Growing and Changing Demands and Increasing Congestion: – Urban areas are facing a substantial growth in travel and changing patterns of demand. It will be difficult to meet this demand with infrastructure and capital expansion alone, leading to a fragile system with limited ability to absorb disruptions. • Growing Impacts of Disruptions: – The “unpredictable” disruption caused by the high frequency of crashes, breakdowns or weather-related incidents are now routine – causing over fifty percent of urban travel delay. Added to this is the continuing reconstruction and maintenance activities associated with the aging infrastructure. • Changing Demands and Concerns of Decision-Makers and the Public: – Decision-makers and planners are faced with a growing list of transportation needs, above and beyond responding to congestion. Today’s planners must also address goals associated with safety, reliability, meeting the needs of an aging society, environmental justice and welfare-to-work, air quality, and other factors. • New Service Attributes Required: – The service orientation of the US economy is generating customer expectations – both passenger and freight – for on a broader range of performance and service options. As society moves further into the information age just in time delivery and instant knowledge of the system and feedback on conditions is becoming expected. New issues and forces are also being confronted within the transportation sector itself and the institutions that build, operate, and maintain the transportation system. These include: • Constraints on Traditional Approaches: The impacts of new facility construction – both high fiscal and environmental costs – often set practical limits on additions of new capacity. ITS provides a key component in managing existing resources. • Pressure on Government for Improved Effectiveness: The continued pressures of deficits, downsizing, devolution, deregulation have encouraged state and local governments through major strategic planning efforts to “reinvent” themselves and find ways for more effective service delivery focusing more on outcomes and less on inputs and outputs. • Private sector entry into the transportation services arena: There appears to be an emerging private industry initiative to provide transportation-related products and services associated with emerging in-vehicle systems, such as safety and information. These services and their impact on the system need to be incorporated into transportation decision making Both ITS services and management and operation of the system respond to these emerging factors while at the same time contributing to meeting many traditional goals and objectives including travel time savings, reliability improvement, and emissions reduction. INTRODUCTION I-5

I.C ITS BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN OPERATIONS AND PLANNING In integrating ITS into planning the conceptual and historic differences in operations and planning must also be overcome. Operating and maintaining the transportation system, and planning to meet future infrastructure and service needs have been carried out in their own worlds with different perspectives, measures, staff, policy makers, support organizations, funding support, and time horizons: • Operations: Decisions for operating and maintaining the system have traditionally focused on short-term day-to-day issues on how to operate and manage the existing transportation network as efficiently as possible. They historically have been separable, short-term, localized, and responsive to conditions. • Planning: In contrast, transportation planning has focused on expanding and modifying the facilities and services to meet long-term system performance under average conditions. Regional system performance is assessed against the overall goals of the region and fiscal/environmental requirements. ITS bridges the gap between operations and planning. The deployment of ITS begins to alter the characteristics of “operations” decisions. ITS is operations oriented and provides information and communications to those operating and using the transportation system. Yet ITS components, especially as integration occurs, begin to have noticeable system-wide impacts and have elements (communications, traffic operations centers) that serve the overall system. In addition, ITS components also to have a much longer planning cycle, larger budget, and higher O&M costs than traditional operational improvements that require shared resources, scheduling, and budget coordination: i.e. “planning”. To reach their full potential ITS systems and components must also be integrated and coordinated to work together. ITS decisions, therefore, must be “planned” with others through collaboration, coordination, and cooperation and depend on the creation of a longer-term vision of the entire system (called system architecture). Figure I-2 Traditional Operations and Planning versus ITS While ITS has characteristics of both operations and planning, it also changes the nature of the transportation system and its decision making in at least two ways. First, ITS depends upon successful communications and protocols to function, meaning that the different elements of the system must be INTRODUCTION I-6

coordinated to work. Thus, implementation of ITS causes the various elements of the transportation system to become more inter-dependent. Second, ITS provides the ability to respond to changing conditions in order to manage the transportation system and its performance I.D DESIRED FEATURES OF AN INTEGRATED DECISION PROCESS A goal of this project is to define and develop an integrated decision process that embraces ITS. An integrated process is one where ITS (and management and operations) strategies are considered on an equal basis with traditional elements of the transportation system. As seen from the above discussion, however, developing an integrated process is much more than simply merging operations, ITS systems engineering and deployment planning and traditional infrastructure planning. It is evolutionary – to some, perhaps, it is revolutionary – and implicitly involves addressing regional goals and objectives that include both operational and system components. It requires both developing projects at a local level, and ensuring that they work with the system at a regional level. When creating any ITS plan, developers are encouraged to “think regionally and act locally.” “Regionally can mean area wide, statewide, multi-state areas or even, and most importantly, nationwide. Local areas will know best what types of strategies will be successful, both in terms of solving the problem and of being accepted by the public, but it should be kept in mind that every individual project and activity needs to be compatible with a larger “system” if the goals of ITS are to be achieved. Virginia’s Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Interim Tactical Plan (August 1996) An integrated process should therefore: • Include ITS, management and operations, system preservation, and infrastructure / capital expansion tradeoffs in a single process. • Incorporate the performance of the system in both average and unusual conditions in the decision process, and include the continual performance feedback and re-alignment of the system as time moves forward. • Balance the near term management of the system to meet ongoing operational issues/concerns with long-term regional objectives. • Account for the system orientation and inter-connectivity of ITS and other operational strategies as well as localized impacts. • Be incremental and address the path of development, life cycle, and development cycles of both operations and ITS (primarily) near-term to mid-term, and long-term system expansion and needs. • Account for rapid technological development and penetration. • Address the impact of private sector provision of ITS services. I.E ORGANIZATION OF THE GUIDEBOOK The remainder of the Guidebook describes the forces that are pushing toward the need for integrated planning which considers ITS, operations, and traditional transportation solutions on an equal basis and presents an Integrated Framework for planning that is based on the ongoing evolution of current practice. The Guidebook is designed to allow different users to explore the information provided in chapter at the level that meets their needs. Accordingly, each chapter/section provides four views of its information at different summary levels. These and their intended audiences are shown in Table I-1. Each chapter/section is also written to stand alone as much as possible allowing readers to read only the sections of interest to them. Please recognize that the summary level presentations and this independence cause some repetition of the material presented. INTRODUCTION I-7

Table I-1 Levels of Information And Their Intended Audiences Level Audience Description Key Point Outline All Callout box at the beginning of each chapter/section. This provides a quick snapshot of the material. It should be used to help assess whether further exploration is warranted or as a reference and memory tickler. Introduction Policy Makers Managers Senior Staff Summarizes the chapter/section’s material and provides a high level overview of the information contained within. It can be used by policy makers and/or senior managers may want quickly understand the main concepts and guidance contained within the section without going into the details of process. Main Body Technical Staff This is designed to provide details to technical staff and others that are responsible for carrying out the activities and functions associated with the planning and decision making for both ITS and operations and traditional planning. Review and Transition Self-Assessment All This is a summary of the key points and set of self-assessment questions. This is designed as a refresher for those that already know the material to help them determine where their area is in the transition from current practice to implementing truly integrated planning. Readers may also be interested in different topics. To help determine what may address their interests each chapter is briefly summarized below. Chapter II: The Changing Context of Planning and Decision Making: Forces Leading To Integrated Planning. Chapter II describes the emerging concerns and governmental trends that are pushing towards integrated planning. This includes increasing congestion and the impact of disruptions, the inability to “build our way out”, changing expectations of the public, and new priorities such as safety and security. On the governmental side, the historic shift towards efficient management of the transportation system is explained and the TEA-21 requirements for Conformity to the National ITS Architecture, and the Management and Operations Planning Factor are described. The strength of these forces depends largely on an area’s local situation and conditions which are summarized as World I (low congestion, stable, still primarily expansion oriented), and World II (congestion, disruptions, inability to build new capacity, becoming management oriented). Chapter III: An Integrated Decision-Making Framework. Chapter III explains a new integrated planning/decision-making framework. It is derived from the natural evolution of the processes used by current pioneers in integrating ITS and planning and designed to meet the desired characteristics of an integrated process. Its main features include: • New focus on near-term problems and systems management – A path of development is created through incremental cycles of planning (short, mid, long) – Both operational and long-range goals, objectives, and concepts/principles included in all time frames – System performance is continually assessed through feedback. • New elements for an integrated alternative – ITS infrastructure and services – Regional ITS Architecture – Concept of Operations – Operating principals/concepts/ and characteristics • Integrated functions and activities that merge operations and planning – Institutional/organizational change captured in “Concept of Planning” INTRODUCTION I-8

– There is no one-way to organize. – Must include new stakeholders and relationships including the public sector. – Technical activities are similar to traditional planning but now include operational characteristics The ability to use the new integrated process to meet current Federal and other governmental planning requirements is also described. Chapter IV: Institutional Relationships, Activities, And Functions. One of the most significant challenges associated with making the transition to integrated planning is overcoming the institutional and organizational challenges associated with bring the planning and ITS/operations worlds together. This chapter, consequently, focuses on the changes in the institutional/organizational relationships, activities and functions in order to make this happen. In order to set the context the institutional/organizational gap is first explained. The activities and functions are then explored. These include: • Redefining institutional/organizational relationships through enabling a new authorizing environment, and providing for within and between agency coordination. • Expanding stakeholders to both the planning and operational worlds • Determining public-private sector roles This is followed by an explanation of different ways to organize identified to support ITS and operations within an integrated process which include: • Do it alone, • MPO Centric • State Centric • Ad Hoc or New Organizations. Which to choose depends upon many factors including the willingness and ability of an institution to take the lead, the overlap of agency boundaries with ITS systems and their influence areas, transportation and environmental issues, other agency skills and resources, legal and other restrictions, and historical relationships. No matter what is chosen, the traditional planning agencies must be key participants for the results to be incorporated into the area’s formal planning documents (Transportation Plans, TIP, etc.). The ability to assemble resources to carry out the new activities and expand staff skills also plays an important role. Last, the “Concept of Planning” is described. It captures how to organize, the roles and responsibilities for planning and decision-making, and how they will evolve to match the changing system and or conditions. Chapter V: Technical Activities and Functions This chapter explores the technical functions and activities that need to be carried out within each cycle of the integrated planning process. It starts with an examination of the issues and concerns that cut across all areas including: the need for ITS architectures, the benefits of standards, geographic and time scale, how to treat uncertainty, and the perceived lack of ITS benefits and cost information. Each activity/function is then fully explored in its own section. The sections are: V.A Crosscutting Technical Issues V.B Vision Goals and Objectives V.C Initial Conditions Analysis (problem identification) V.D Identifying Integrated Alternatives V.E Estimating Costs, Benefits, and Impacts V.F Evaluation of Alternatives V.G Planning to Programming V.H Performance Feedback: ITS Data and Planning Decision Making. INTRODUCTION I-9

Note, that each of these sections is also provided with its own summary and transition assessment, and can be read somewhat independently. Chapter VI: Continuing Challenges and Sources For Staying Current Planning and decision-making will continue to change after this Guidebook has been released. The Final Rule For Metropolitan And Statewide Planning incorporating the changes introduced by TEA-21 is yet to be issued. Re-authorization that is bound to introduce new changes is also drawing closer and closer. Events and our changing environment are also raising new priorities and concerns that must be addressed. This section briefly outlines continuing challenges, and then provides a series of websites where information on the policies, processes, and requirements are likely to be found as they evolve. Appendixes: Appendixes are also provided. One of the major needs identified in the research is the lack of a common language that bridges the gap between Transportation Engineers, ITS specialists and Planners. A Glossary is therefore provided in Appendix A that identifies the terms used in the Guidebook and their usage. Hopefully, this will help reduce the lack of communication between practitioners from different disciplines. It provides common planning and evaluation process terms first. These are followed by terms used in the ITS community and brief descriptions of the ITS User Services, and National ITS Architecture Market Packages. Appendix B provides the relationship between the ITS User Services and ITS Market Packages. Appendix C provides the self-assessment questions from each chapter as a package. In conclusion, the reader should use this Guidebook as a resource based upon their needs and concerns. It is designed to be selectively read depending upon the need for depth and information that is needed. INTRODUCTION I-10