Designing for Transportation Management and Operations: A Primer

Figure 27. Aerial view of truck weigh station. (Source: Florida DoT)

4. A Way Forward

While each transportation agency, State, or region has unique circumstances that will dictate an individual approach to accounting for M&O strategies during project development and design, this primer introduces key elements that agencies will need in developing a way forward. Agencies will need policies and an organizational structure that prioritizes operations in infrastructure design and institutionalizes the process of designing for operations. For example, the Missouri DOT and Caltrans have policies of cross-functional collaboration (including traffic operations) during the infrastructure design process. Several transportation agencies are elevating operations in their organizational structures by creating high-level operations departments or integrating an M&O program throughout each organizational division.

Over the past decade, transportation agencies have become increasingly focused on providing the greatest level of mobility, safety, and security with their roadway infrastructure investments. This is due to a number of factors, such as increased demand, limited space for roadway expansion, and funding and environmental constraints. It requires the use of M&O strategies, which maximize the use of traditional infrastructure through managing transportation smartly with traveler information, TIM, managed lanes, and other approaches. The use of M&O strategies requires infrastructureboth roadway and ITS-that is designed with operations in mind. Otherwise, the roadway creates a range of impediments to using these strategies, and either costly modifications must be made or the strategy is performed inefficiently, if at all. Many agencies have struggled with this problem and several of them are proactively addressing it through policies, guidance, training, or increased collaboration. This primer highlights examples from agencies making strides in designing for operations, such as the Pennsylvania DOT, Caltrans, and Portland Metro. These examples of emerging practices are intended to motivate, inspire, and offer additional resources in your pursuit of your agency's unique approach to designing for operations.

An effective designing for operations approach will also require direction for the design or project development team on what to consider. This primer recommends closely linking the design process to the planning process such that the collaborative decisions made during the planning process guide considerations. Any objectives and performance measures for transportation system operations should be used in evaluating design alternatives so that the infrastructure supports the area's ability to reach its operations objectives. The infrastructure should be designed to support applicable M&O strategies that have been selected through the planning process or through the development of an operations strategic plan or regional ITS architecture. What to consider during the design process should also be informed by agency policy, internal and external operations professionals, and input from stakeholders in areas such as transit agencies, pedestrian and bicycle advocates, commercial vehicle operators, and other important infrastructure user groups. Section 3 of this primer was built with the contributions of several operations and design experts across the United States with the purpose of providing you with an initial list of tangible design considerations that help support or are required in the use of a number of popular M&O strategies. This section can be modified and distributed among your project design team as an initial step in tailoring a designing for operations approach that works for your organization.

Finally, the design team needs the knowledge of how to design roadway infrastructure and deploy ITS to enable M&O strategies. This knowledge is most often provided through formal design guidance such as Caltrans' Ramp Metering Design Manual, training, and cross-functional collaboration where operations experts and roadway designers work together to develop project-specific designs treatments.

On a national level, this primer represents the first step in promoting the frequent and systematic consideration of M&O strategies across each stage of the design process. Soon, the SHRP 2 L07 project, Evaluation of Cost-Effectiveness of Highway Design Features,⁵⁰ will provide another tool to transportation agencies to help evaluate the operational and safety impacts of multiple design treatments. Future efforts to advance designing for operations may include national guidelines or standards similar to those for geometric design found in AASHTO's A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, also known "The Green Book."⁵¹ The FHWA will continue to support the widespread adoption of designing for operations practices across the United States to support agencies in maximizing the operational benefits from their roadway investments.