Active Transportation and Demand Management

Active Transportation and Demand Management (ATDM) is the dynamic management, control, and influence of travel demand, traffic demand, and traffic flow on transportation facilities. Through the use of available tools and assets, traffic flow is managed and traveler behavior is influenced in real-time to achieve operations objectives, such as preventing or delaying breakdown conditions, improving safety, promoting sustainable travel modes, reducing emissions, or maximizing system efficiency. Through ATDM, regions attain the capability to monitor, control, and influence travel, traffic, and facility demand on the entire transportation system and over a traveler's entire trip chain.

ATDM builds upon existing capabilities, assets, and programs and enables agencies to leverage existing investments, creating a more efficient and effective system and extending the service life of existing capital investments. Planning for operations can help agencies advance to this more active management philosophy by bringing the fundamental concepts to bear during the development of the vision for how the transportation system should operate, the desired operations objectives, and performance measures.