Incorporating Travel-Time Reliability into the Congestion Management Process (CMP): A Primer

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U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
Office of Operations
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov

Publication #: FHWA-HOP-14-034

February 2015

[Quality Assurance Statement]

[Technical Report Documentation Page]

[Preface]

[SI Conversion Factors]

[Acronyms and Symbols]

Table of Contents

Overview
Chapter 1. Introduction
	1.1 What is Travel-Time Reliability?
	1.2 Why Does Reliability Matter Now?
	1.3 The CMP and the Value of Incorporating Reliability
	1.4 Purpose of the Primer
	1.5 Content of the Primer
Chapter 2. How to Incorporate Reliability into the Congestion Management Process
	2.1 Objectives and Performance
	2.2 Diagnosing Causes of Reliability Problems
	2.3 Generation of Strategies for Addressing Reliability
	2.4 Evaluation of Strategies
	2.5 Monitoring Reliability Outcomes
Chapter 3. Getting Started
	3.1 Update Goal, Objective and Performance Measures
	3.2 Assess Data Needs and Availability
	3.3 Diagnose Causes of Unreliability for Select Facilities
	3.4 Evaluate and Prioritize Reliability Strategies
	3.5 Prepare CMP Updates
Chapter 4. Model Congestion Management Plan
	4.1 One Size Does Not Fit All
	4.2 Model Plan Excerpts
Chapter 5. Summary
Chapter 6. References
Appendix: Congestion Management Process Refresher
Acknowledgments

List of Figures

• Figure 1. Chart. Causes of Congestion
• Figure 2. Graph. Travelers' Experience of Travel-Time Reliability
• Figure 3. Chart. 30-Year Growth of Key Metrics in Relation to Highway Lane Miles
• Figure 4. Chart. Typical Capacity and Operations Related Strategies
• Figure 5. Chart. Actions for the Congestion Management Process
• Figure 6. Graph. The Travel-Time Distribution and Measures of Reliability
• Figure 7. Graph. Dimensions of Reliability with Sample Data
• Figure 8. Chart. Overview of Reliability Estimation Methodology from the Second Strategic Highway Research Program
• Figure 9. Chart. Goals, Objectives, and Strategies — An Example
• Figure 10. Chart. Actions for the Congestion Management Process

List of Tables

• Table 1. Resources for Incorporating Reliability in the Congestion Management Process
• Table 2. Generic Examples of Reliability Objectives
• Table 3. Drafting Reliability Objectives
• Table 4. Reliability Performance Measures for the Congestion Management Process
• Table 5. Example Strategies for Improving Reliability
• Table 6. Systems Operations Benefits
• Table 7. Getting Started Checklist
• Table 8. Example of Resource Requirements for Performance Measures from Madison, Wisconson
• Table 9. Example of a Performance Monitoring Plan from Madison, Wisconsin