An Agency Guide on How to Establish Localized Congestion Mitigation Programs
Executive Summary
FHWA’s Localized Bottleneck Reduction Initiative (LBR) program has researched over the last five years the causes, impacts, and mitigations available to combat localized recurring congestion; that is, congestion that is primarily “point-specific” as to cause, location, duration, and repetitiveness. This guidance document is intended to aid agencies in establishing either ad hoc or annualized programs that address localized congestion, much in the same way that an annualized safety-spot program would address localized safety issues.
“Localized” recurring congestion differs from regional or corridor-sized congestion, in that the former is characterized by a relatively low-cost, usually correctable operational deficiency (e.g., lane drop, weave, merge, etc.), whereas the latter is often systemic, and may be sufficiently complex in cause and relief that funding and/or project duration are typically very high and very long, respectively.
An agency that does not have a stand-alone “localized” congestion program is missing an opportunity to address a specific subset of overall congestion.
The main questions that this guidance helps an agency frame are:
- Do we have a satisfactory agency methodology to specifically address localized congestion problems?
- Within that program, do we have satisfactory justifications for project candidacy, selection, and solutions for said problems?
- Are we executing these projects in a timely fashion and within budgets that are representative of the context of a "Localized Bottleneck Reduction" program?
