Principles and Guidance for Presenting Active Traffic Management Information to Drivers (2021)

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1 Chapter 1: Introduction Active Traffic Management (ATM) strategies have been increasingly deployed in the United States, particularly in the last decade, as state departments of transportation (DOTs) grapple with increasing congestion and fewer dollars available to add capacity to keep pace. ATM strategies provide a more cost-effective solution to better manage traffic using the available capacity on the existing roadway network. The expansion of ATM strategies and implementations has led to a concurrent increase in the options available to deliver ATM information to drivers. Information displays designed to capture drivers’ attention quickly include devices that are fixed and moveable, graphics-based and text-based, overhead and roadside, as well as handheld and vehicle-based. Because of the innovative nature of ATM strategies, there is limited guidance available and many research questions remain about how ATM information can be effectively and safely presented to drivers across the many existing and potential dissemination methods. The objective of project NCHRP 03-124 is to develop principles and guidance for presenting drivers with dynamic information that can be frequently updated based on real-time conditions. These principles and guidance should improve the effectiveness of ATM strategies, which includes systems to manage congestion, incidents, weather, special events, and work zones. The project is intended to explore and provide answers to the following 6 key research questions: 1. What information related to ATM strategies does a driver want and need? What characteristics are associated with this information (e.g., reliability, timeliness)? 2. How much information can a driver process via the complementary and contrasting modalities (e.g., visual, auditory), given the context and distractions? 3. What existing and potential media could be used to deliver this information? Media that are under the control of transportation agencies (e.g., electronic signs) are of primary interest but alternative and innovative media (e.g., in-vehicle displays, cell phone applications, geographic information systems) and their evolving capabilities and roles must be examined. 4. Given a particular message and medium, what are effective ways to prioritize, format, and present the information to achieve a desired and safe response by drivers? 5. How can an agency evaluate the return on investment of an ATM infrastructure or information technology decision? 6. How can an agency balance the needs of drivers and the infrastructure costs, including maintenance and operations? This report describes the activities and results associated with Task 9: Develop and Submit Deliverables. Figure 1 provides an overview of the project and individual tasks.

2 Figure 1. Project sequence and tasks. Overview of the Report This report is divided into six chapters. • Chapter 1 – Introduction: The current chapter, which provides a general overview of the overall project objectives • Chapter 2 – State of the Practice: This chapter documents the state of the practice of displaying ATM information both within the United States and internationally • Chapter 3 – Literature Review: This chapter synthesizes the available literature about displaying ATM information in key topic areas and identifies research gaps within those topics • Chapter 4 – Research Gaps: This chapter describes activities related to refining and prioritize research gaps related displaying ATM information • Chapter 5 – Empirical Studies: This chapter describes the methodology and findings for three studies that were conducted during this project to address the key research gaps • Chapter 6 – Conclusions: This chapter integrates the available information about each research gap developed across all project activities