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59 CHAPTER 5 Pilot Testing and Analysis on SHRP 2 L05 Product 5.1 Introduction SHRP 2 L05 provides a concise description of how to incorporate reliability considerations into the transportation planning and programming process, with a focus on helping agencies make choices and tradeoffs about funding and project priority. Through the development of this guide for incorporating reliability into the planning process, WSDOT, along with the Moving Washington initiative, has been mentioned several times as an example to illustrate how agencies incorporated the notion of reliability into their policy statements. From the Gray Notebook to the Annual Congestion Report, WSDOT has been using different performance measures to convey reliability trends at corridor and statewide levels. It is without a doubt that WSDOT has already considered reliability as one of the top priorities in the strategic planning process. WSDOT has been in the process of defining an investment philosophy and framework that is intended to incorporate operational, demand management, and traditional capacity approaches to produce integrated and incremental corridor investment plans. WSDOT recognizes that accomplishing this requires the ability to work across organizations and ensure individual program activities, processes, and expertise are aligned and integrated toward common system performance objectives and outcomes. The SHRP 2 L01 (Integrating Business Processes to Improve Reliability) (Kimley-Horn and Associates 2011)/L06 (Institutional Architectures to Advance Operational Strategies) (Parsons Brinckerhoff, & Delcan Corporation 2012) project focuses on organizational structure and capabilities associated with integration of reliability and deployment of operational strategies from a transportation agency perspective. WSDOT was selected as an early implementer and intends to focus efforts on integrating operations and operational strategies into the planning, programming, and project development processes. This project has since been refined to focus specifically on operations program capabilities, processes and products, and the level of maturity relative to what is necessary to engage effectively in planning processes. Associated with this and incorporating L05 products would be an assessment of key planning processes to consider how to incorporate reliability from a performance perspective, and to ensure integration of operational and demand management strategies within planning processes. Performance measurement as it relates to reliability will be part of this effort. Through this effort, WSDOT intends to identify gaps in methods, process, organization, and competencies, with the outcome of this effort including the development of a work plan delineating steps to improve organizational capabilities. The initial project kick off meeting was held on October 29, 2013, with the workshop scheduled for mid-June of 2014.
60 5.2 SHRP 2 L01/L06 Early Implementation Project Given that traffic congestion associated with weather, crashes, and special events creates more than 50% of all motorist delay, processes to better manage traffic operations and leverage existing capacity will make the highway system more reliable and reduce the cost of congestion for drivers, freight operators, and other users. Several new tools to help agencies advance their business practices and their organizational structures are now available from SHRP 2. Taken together, they provide a structure to modernize current practices, mainstream traffic operations in the state or local department of transportation, and, ultimately, help agencies better plan for and address nonrecurrent congestion on their systems. A new suite of guides and tools will assist transportation agencies in evaluating and improving their organizational capabilities to conduct effective and efficient operations, which includes integrating travel time reliability into planning, programming, and project delivery processes while overcoming interdepartmental and interagency barriers to improving highway operations. The new guides and tools include: ï· The tools for an agency staff to conduct an assessment of their organizational structure and business practices for effectiveness in managing travel time reliability through traffic operations; ï· Case studies that show how other states have adjusted their business processes to better handle traffic incident management, work zone management, and other business functions related to travel time reliability; and ï· A system and templates for advancing an agencyâs ability to improve systems operations and management. The first product, Integrating Business Processes to Improve Travel Time Reliability (L01), focuses on integrating business processes to allow DOTs to improve reliability through management of incidents, weather, work zones, special events, traffic control devices, fluctuations in demand, and bottlenecks. The second product, Institutional Architectures to Advance Operational Strategies (L06), provides a comprehensive and systematic examination of ways agencies can be more effectively organized to successfully execute operations programs that improve travel time reliability. It includes a self-evaluation guide and identifies all the elements needed to improve activities for business processes, systems and technology, performance management, culture, organization and workforce, and collaboration. The focus of this effort will be internal to WSDOT. However, there will be opportunity for MPO and local agency involvement at various stages of development, such as at the concept stage as objectives associated with the Moving Washington framework are refined and as researchers develop and refine strategies, methodologies, processes, and roles necessary to integrate reliability and operations into to the broader context of overall investment planning.
61 5.3 SHRP 2 L05 Project Comments Recognizing that much of the implementation focus for WSDOT will occur with the deployment of the L01/L06 Capability and Maturity workshop, a cursory level of review of the Guide to Incorporating Reliability Performance Measures into the Transportation Planning and Programming Processes was conducted. From this review, WSDOT offers the following comments. Overall, the guide provides a very sound comprehensive approach to incorporating reliability into planning and programming processes. The descriptions aimed at explaining the various forms the measure might take, how to communicate the measures in clear understandable terms, and the significance of the measure as an importance gap-filling process to comprehensively considering system performance were very well presented. Recognizing that Reliability is a rapidly evolving term, there will be opportunities to continue to refine how this is presented. These may include the following: ï· There are likely limitations to how reliability can be estimated using existing tools. The guide suggests accomplishing this through existing microsimulation models. Experience indicates that there are challenges with these approaches not only from the level of intensity required to conduct an analysis using these tools but also from the potential unknowns that may factor into actual performance. Model calibration would be a challenge. This would make associating the value of different potential improvement strategies challenging as well. ï· Other opportunities for further development could also focus on when in planning horizon of a facility reliability and the ability to estimate outcomes of different improvement alternatives best fit. It seems clear the application and value when considering existing performance and near term implementation of improvement strategies. How reliability can be considered as longer term forecasted and estimated performance measure seems less clear. ï· There also seems to be potential for the use of reliability measures as leading performance indicators for corridors with emerging congestion. When and how to apply these measures in developing corridors may provide benefit from the perspective of the timing of when to begin considering operational strategies ahead of the onset of routine congestion.
