2.9 Regional Concept for Transportation Operations

The previous seven subsections discuss specific strategies that encourage and support linkages between planning and operations. Each of these strategies has a role within the existing regional transportation planning process. In addition, these strategies should be coordinated to support regional system management and operations. This section introduces the idea of a Regional Concept for Transportation Operations (RCTO), a strategy for ensuring that management and operation activities build toward a common vision and relate to the broader regional planning process.(19) An RCTO links planning and operations by providing a coherent operations strategy for consideration during the planning process and by supporting the linkages discussed in previous sections.(20)

An RCTO presents a regional objective for transportation operations and describes what is needed to achieve that objective within a reasonably short timeframe, often three to five years. The development of the RCTO should include participation by the MPO to ensure consistency with the region's vision and goals. It should also involve stakeholders that depend on regional operations coordination (see Exhibit 10). The process of developing an RCTO requires sustained collaboration among these stakeholders.

To date, only a small number of regions have developed RCTOs. Therefore, rather than focusing on the few examples of how RCTOs have linked planning and operations, this section describes in general how an RCTO can support planning and operations coordination and how it can support other strategies discussed in this reference guide.

What is Included in an RCTO?

An RCTO can vary significantly in scope depending on the region and the range of programs it seeks to address (see Exhibit 11 below), but certain fundamental components must be included. A RCTO should include a description of the operational objective, physical elements, relationships and procedures, and the resource arrangements needed to achieve the RCTO goals. These sections of an RCTO would typically address the following:

• Operational Objective: the desired state of operations at the end of a three- to five-year period. All stakeholders should agree upon this outcome, it should be consistent with regional goals expressed in regional planning documents, and it should be realistically achievable given the time frame and available resources.
• Physical Elements: the equipment, technology, facilities, people, and systems needed to achieve the operational objective.
• Relationships and Procedures: the working agreements, institutional arrangements, MOUs, and procedures needed to achieve the operational objective.
• Resource Arrangements: the funding and other resource requirements (e.g., staff and equipment) and how those resources are to be obtained and applied to achieve the operational objective.

How Can an RCTO Link Planning and Operations?

The RCTO links planners and operators by helping operators participate in planning process and by helping planners understand how operations can support the region's broader transportation goals. The RCTO builds consensus on the future of transportation operations needs, providing stakeholders with a basis for productively participating in regional decisions and for critically evaluating whether the proposed investments support the operations vision.

Helping Operations Practitioners Engage in the Planning Process

An RCTO can prepare system management and operation practitioners to be effective contributors within the transportation planning process.

• An RCTO addresses a longer time horizon and a broader geographic range than is typical for operations strategies. As a result, the RCTO allows operations practitioners to link their programs with future capital investments and anticipated resource opportunities.
• An RCTO builds commitment among stakeholders for a common regional approach to operations (see Box 50 below). Operations managers will have greater influence in the planning process when diverse stakeholders have reached consensus on an operational objective for the region.
• Though longer than typical operations plans, the three- to five-year time frame of the RCTO is shorter than many planning documents. The RCTO is therefore more likely to maintain interest of operations-minded stakeholder groups that may not engage in the 20-year regional planning process. In this way, the RCTO serves as a bridge between stakeholders focused on very short-term operations needs and those focused on the long-term evolution of the regional transportation system.

Helping Planners Promote Management and Operations

An RCTO can help planners and decisionmakers by relating management and operations to broader regional goals and by describing individual operations programs within a broader regional operations strategy.

• An RCTO links management and operations strategies with regional goals and objectives. This helps planners see the benefits of regional operations investments and creates a common understanding of regional systems management and operations.
• An RCTO illustrates how individual management and operations projects and programs fit into a broader strategy for regional transportation efficiency (see Box 51 below). In this way, an RCTO helps planners consider how capital projects can be implemented in a way that complements existing operations strategies.
• By providing a coherent operations strategy for consideration during the planning process, an RCTO enables decisionmakers to fund critical operations initiatives and understand how they support regional goals. In this way, an RCTO provides elected officials who must approve transportation plans and programs with justification for promoting regional benefits through local operations decisions.

Through the mechanisms outlined above, an RCTO enables regional planners and operations managers to be proactive about coordinating operations strategies to serve regional objectives.

How Can an RCTO Support Linkage Opportunities Discussed in this Guide?

From the discussion above, it should be clear that the RCTO links planning and operations in ways similar to the strategies discussed in the previous sections of this reference guide (Sections 2.2 to 2.8). In fact, the RCTO can be a valuable tool for integrating all of these strategies to improve planning and operations coordination. The following discussion gives some examples of how the RCTO supports the linkage opportunities discussed in these previous sections.

• Data Sharing (Section 2.2): The RCTO is an opportunity to increase regional data sharing. As discussed in Section 2.2, incompatible or conflicting data between various agencies and jurisdictions frequently impede efforts to maximize the use of data for operations and planning. The RCTO can highlight the benefits of improved data consistency, awareness, and accessibility. This allows agencies to evaluate tradeoffs and consider compromises relating to data standards and protocols.
• Performance Measures (Section 2.3): An RCTO can provide a basis for developing management and operations performance measures. Because the RCTO defines regional operations objectives, physical needs, institutional relationships, and resource needs, it is the ideal place to define metrics to assess the region's progress in each of these areas.
• Congestion Management Systems (Section 2.4): The RCTO can help ensure that individual management and operations projects build towards integrated regional transportation objectives. Goals for management and operations may stretch beyond traditional congestion management to include objectives such as travel time reliability and intermodal coordination. The RCTO can provide a framework so that operations projects and programs within the CMS are not implemented in an ad-hoc fashion but, rather, contribute toward an integrated strategy.
• Funding and Resource Sharing (Section 2.5): The RCTO allows operations funding to be targeted toward more specific management and operations strategies and reveals opportunities for efficient resource sharing. Section 2.5 described how funding for operations is frequently allocated under broad categories (such as "management and operations") with little specific reference to the activities that are to be funded. An RCTO provides a more complete regional operations vision that helps define specific programs during the planning stage. This can raise the profile of management and operations programs among elected officials and the public.
  
  In addition, by defining some common operations goals among diverse stakeholders, the RCTO can identify equipment and other resource needs that are common to several agencies. This creates an opportunity to identify particular equipment that could be jointly purchased and shared by a number of agencies, or to coordinate common technology or software to enhance compatibility and efficiency. Raising such opportunities a year or two in advance is critical for developing coordinated strategies.
• Institutional Arrangements (Section 2.6): Regular stakeholder forums and interjurisdictional meetings are familiar to participants in the regional planning process. However, some operating agencies may be less accustomed to such practices, and may question whether they are a valuable use of time and resources. The RCTO provides an important framework for ensuring that such forums are directed toward clearly defined and pragmatic operations coordination. Initially, meetings to prepare and advance the RCTO may be the only forums where the participating stakeholders can focus on regional operations thinking. The RCTO also offers an opportunity to forge needed relationships with non-transportation agencies (such as emergency response and security agencies).
• Regional ITS Architecture (Section 2.7): Components of an RCTO correspond with components of the Regional ITS Architecture discussed in Section 2.7. For example, an RCTO's "relationships and procedures" section should relate closely to a regional ITS architecture's discussion of critical agency relationships and information sharing. Where a regional architecture exists, it should both inform and draw support from the RCTO. In regions where there is no regional ITS architecture, the RCTO will help ensure that the architecture is developed in a way that informs immediate operations decision-making and links to broad regional goals and objectives.
• RTSM&O Projects (Section 2.8): The RCTO is directly related to the implementation of RTSM&O projects. Section 2.8 describes the common practice of allocating authority for all operations to local jurisdictions. The RCTO offers a means by which local organizations can maintain control of their own management and operations projects and programs while increasing the likelihood that these programs will build toward an integrated regional management strategy.

The Future of the RCTO

Implementing an RCTO involves significant challenges. For example, there will be challenges in directing resources toward a new regional coordination effort. There will be challenges in identifying stakeholders with the technical knowledgeable necessary to develop the RCTO yet with sufficient decision-making authority to commit resources and formalize relationships. And of course, there will be challenges in building regional consensus on operations priorities. Based on the RCTOs potential for linking planning and operations and improving the efficiency of existing investments, these challenges are well worth facing. Existing experience with RCTOs offers reason to be optimistic.