Guide for Highway Capacity and Operations Analysis of Active Transportation and Demand Management Strategies

Foreword

Notice

This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of the information contained in this document. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.

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Quality Assurance Statement

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Foreword

ATDM is the dynamic management, control, and influence of travel demand, traffic demand, and traffic flow of transportation facilities. Through the use of available tools and assets, traffic flow is managed and traveler behavior is influenced in real-time to achieve operational objectives, such as preventing or delaying breakdown conditions, improving safety, promoting sustainable travel modes, reducing emissions, or maximizing system efficiency.

Under an ATDM approach the transportation system is continuously monitored. Using archived data and/or predictive methods, actions are performed in real-time to achieve or maintain system performance. Active management of transportation and demand can include multiple approaches spanning demand management, traffic management, parking management, and efficient utilization of other transportation modes and assets.

This Guide provides a conceptual analysis framework, recommended measures of effectiveness, and an initial recommended methodology for evaluating the impacts of ATDM strategies on highway and street system demand, capacity, and performance. Although the Guide describes various ATDM “strategies” and “measures” it should be noted that most any system management or operations strategy that is applied in a dynamic manner can be considered active management.

The Methodology for Capacity and Operations Analysis of ATDM presented here should be viewed as an initial, foundational methodology primarily focused on traffic management applications. In some cases, the operations strategies presented here may be relatively static (e.g., fixed ramp metering rates or toll rate schedules). However, it is necessary to present these as the starting points in order to analyze the benefits of applying dynamic treatments. It is also recognized that there are several gaps in our knowledge of the effects of ATDM strategies, which can only be filled as more experience is gained with ATDM applications in the United States. It is hoped that the conceptual analysis framework laid out in this Guide will provide the framework for the future research that will fill those gaps.

The Guide presents practitioners with methods to represent the varied demand and capacity conditions that facilities may be expected to operate under and methods to apply a limited but broad set of transportation management actions to respond to those conditions. Thus, the methodology represents, in a macroscopic sense, the effects of ATDM at a level suitable for planning and investment decision-making but not real-time operations. This Guide is designed to be used in conjunction with the Transportation Research Board’s Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) for the planning, programming, and design of ATDM measures.

Although the Guide is intended to support ATDM analysis and provide content for Chapter 35 (Active Traffic Management) of the HCM, several aspects of the methodology, such as accounting demand variability, incidents, and weather scenarios, can also be applied to analyzing capacity and other non-operations type strategies.

Technical Report Documentation Page

1. Report No. FHWA-HOP-13-042	2. Government Accession No.			3. Recipient’s Catalog No.
4. Title and Subtitle Guide for Highway Capacity and Operations Analysis of Active Transportation and Demand Management Strategies				5. Report Date June 2013
				6. Performing Organization Code
7. Author(s) Richard Dowling (Kittelson and Associates, Inc.), Richard Margiotta (Cambridge Systematics, Inc.), Harry Cohen, and Alexander Skabardonis				8. Performing Organization Report No.
9. Performing Organization Name and Address Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 4800 Hampden Lane, Suite 800 Bethesda, MD 20814				10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS)
				11. Contract or Grant No. DTFH61-06-D-00004
12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Office of Operations 1200 New Jersey Ave SE Washington, D.C. 20590				13. Type of Report and Period Covered
				14. Sponsoring Agency Code
15. Supplementary Notes The COTM was Wayne Berman, FHWA
16. Abstract This Guide provides a conceptual analysis framework, recommended measures of effectiveness, and an initial recommended methodology for evaluating the impacts of ATDM strategies on highway and street system demand, capacity, and performance. The Guide presents practitioners with methods to analyze the varying demand and capacity conditions that facilities operate under and methods to apply a limited but broad set of transportation management actions to respond to those conditions Thus, the methodology represents, in a macroscopic sense, the effects of ATDM at a level suitable for planning and investment decision-making but not real-time operations. This Guide is designed to be used in conjunction with the Transportation Research Board’s Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) for the planning, programming, and design of ATDM measures. Although the Guide is intended to support ATDM analysis and provide content for Chapter 35 (Active Traffic Management) of the HCM, several aspects of the methodology, such as accounting for demand variability, incidents, and weather scenarios, can also be applied to analyzing capacity and other non-operations type strategies.
17. Key Words Highway Capacity, Active Transportation and Demand Management, operations, strategies, demand, capacity, performance			18. Distribution Statement No restrictions.
19. Security Classif. (of this report) Unclassified		20. Security Classif. (of this page) Unclassified			21. No of Pages 140	22. Price N/A

Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72)                                                                      Reproduction of completed pages authorized

Acknowledgments

The development of this Guide greatly benefited from the contributions of practitioners from State and local departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, and universities. The Federal Highway Administration and the authors acknowledge the individuals who provided input through review and feedback from several workshops that were conducted:

• Nagui Rouphail, North Carolina State University
• Bastian Schroeder, North Carolina State University
• Behzad Aghdashi, North Carolina State University
• Lily Elefteriadou, University of Florida
• Scott Washburn, University of Florida
• Bill Sampson, University of Florida (McTrans)
• Mike Dixon, University of Idaho
• Kevin Hanley, Caltrans
• Members of the Transportation Research Board’s Highway Capacity Quality of Service and Freeway Operations Committees
• State and local practitioners and consultants who attended the workshops
• FHWA ATDM Project Team
  • James Colyar
  • Jim Hunt
  • Jim Sturrock
  • Jim McCarthy
  • Chung Tran
  • John Halkias
  • Wayne Berman
  • Ralph Volpe
  • Robert Sheehan
• Erin Flanigan, Cambridge Systematics
• Harry Cohen, Consultant

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