Freight Performance Measure Approaches for Bottlenecks, Arterials, and Linking Volumes to Congestion Report

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Contact Information: Freight Feedback at FreightFeedback@dot.gov

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

Publication #: FHWA-HOP-15-033

August 2015

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Purpose of This Guide

1.2 Guide Organization

1.3 Summary of Past Work

2.0 Matching Traffic Volumes to Congestion Data

2.1 Data Sources

2.2 Segmentation of Roadway into Reporting Segments

2.3 Quality Control

2.4 Data Processing Procedures to Match Travel-Time (Speed) and Volume Data Sources

3.0 Measuring Signalized Arterial Congestion

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Data Sources for Monitoring Signalized Arterial Performance

3.3 Recommended Procedure for Measuring Signalized Arterial Congestion

4.0 Analysis of Freight Bottlenecks

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Bottleneck Typology

4.3 Data Required for Freight Bottleneck Analysis

4.4 Bottleneck Performance Measures

4.5 Initial Screening of Potential Truck Freight Bottlenecks: Geometric- and Volume-Related Bottlenecks

4.6 Conduct Project-Level Analysis for Selected Bottlenecks: Geometric- and Volume-Related Bottlenecks

4.7 Conduct Project-Level Analysis for Selected Bottlenecks: Policy-Related Bottlenecks

4.8 Estimating the Impacts of Improving Truck Bottlenecks

4.9 Multi-Modal Considerations

4.10 Supply Chain Considerations

4.11 Community Considerations

4.12 Existing Plans and Programs

List of Figures

Figure 1. Map. Houston TranStar® traffic map.

Figure 2. Graph. “Car speed minus truck speed” difference cumulative percentage distribution, Interstates.

Figure 3. Graph. “Car speed minus truck speed” difference cumulative percentage distribution, other freeway and expressway.

Figure 4. Graph. “Car speed minus truck speed” difference cumulative percentage distribution, principal and minor arterials.

Figure 5. Graph. Weekday mixed-traffic distribution profile for no to low congestion.

Figure 6. Graph. Weekday freeway truck-traffic distribution profiles.

Figure 7. Flow chart. Program logic model adapted for arterial performance management.

Figure 8. Map. Interstate spot speeds.

Figure 9. Graph. Distribution of sample Interstate spot speeds.

Figure 10. Map. Spot speeds along an urban signalized arterial.

Figure 11. Graph. Distribution of sample urban signalized arterial spot speeds.

Figure 12. Map. Average spot speed measurements.

Figure 13. Map. Travel time measurements along an urban arterial.

Figure 14. Equation. TravelTime subscript Segment.

Figure 15. Equation. RefTravelTime subscript Segment.

Figure 16. Equation. UnitDelay subscript Segment.

Figure 17. Equation. MTTI subscript Segment.

Figure 18. Equation. PTI subscript Segment.

Figure 19. Equation. P80TTI subscript Segment.

Figure 20. Equation. UnitDelay subscript Segment.

Figure 21. Equation. VMT subscript Segment.

Figure 22. Equation. VHT subscript Segment.

Figure 23. Equation. TotalDelay subscript Segment.

Figure 24. Equation. MTTI subscript (Facility).

Figure 25. Equation. PTI subscript Facility.

Figure 26. Equation. P80TTI subscript Facility.

Figure 27. Equation. TotalDelay subscript Facility.

Figure 28. Graph. Example cumulative frequency distribution for travel times.

Figure 29. Flow chart. Overview of freight bottleneck analysis methodology.

Figure 30. Table. Common locations for geometric-related bottlenecks on freeways.

Figure 31. Map. Bottleneck at intersection or interchange.

Figure 32. Equation. Annual passenger vehicle delay cost.

Figure 33. Equation. Annual commercial cost.

Figure 34. Equation. TTI subscript e(VT).

Figure 35. Equation. Annual commercial cost.

Figure 36. Map. Atlanta truck speeds, AM peak.

Figure 37. Map. Atlanta truck speeds, PM peak.

Figure 38. Graph. Vehicle speeds on primary arterials, Davidson and Knox Counties, Tennessee.

Figure 39. Map. I-285/I-85 interchange, Atlanta, Georgia.

Figure 40. Figure. The instantaneous and virtual probe methods of estimating travel times from spot speeds.

List of Tables

Table 1. United States traffic message channel—Roadway coverage in National Highway System and National Performance Management Research Data Set.

Table 2. Completeness Percentages for the National Performance Management Research Data Set for mixed traffic and trucks.

Table 3. Mixed speed and truck speed percentage validation results by functional classification.

Table 4. Speed and volume spatial and temporal data availability considerations.

Table 5. Day-of-week volume conversion factors.

Table 6. Comparison of arterial travel-time data collection technologies.

Table 7. Reference speeds from National Performance Management Research Data Set.

Table 8. Test of reference speeds, Atlanta, Georgia freeways.

Table 9. Segment-level performance measures, U.S. 70 PM peak.

Table 10. Partial list of potential truck bottleneck locations for Tennessee from National Performance Management Research Data Set scan.

Table 11. Annual average daily traffic-to-capacity levels and corresponding annual average daily traffic values.

Table 12. Performance measures for the inbound legs of the I-85/I-285 interchange, Atlanta, Georgia, 2014.

Table 13. Reliability prediction methods developed by the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 program.

List of Abbreviations and Symbols

AADT—Annual Average Daily Traffic

AASHTO—American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

AOG—Arrival on Green

ARC—Atlanta Regional Commission

ATRI—American Transportation Research Institute

AVC—Automatic Vehicle Classification

AVI—Automatic Vehicle Identification

BTI—Buffer Time Index

DMI—Distance Measuring Instrument

DOT—Department of Transportation

EDRG—Economic Development Research Group

ELPR—Electronic License Plate Reader

FCAT—Freight Chokepoint Analysis Tool

FHWA—Federal Highway Administration

FMCSA—Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

GDOT—Georgia Department of Transportation

GIS—Geographic Information System

GPS—Global Positioning System

HCM—Highway Capacity Manual

HOS—Hours of Service

HPMS—Highway Performance Monitoring System

HSM—Highway Safety Manual

ID—Identification Document

ITE—Institute of Transportation Engineers

ITS—Intelligent Transportation Systems

LRTP—Long-Range Transportation Plan

MAC—Media Access Control

MAP-21—Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century Act

MMUT—Mobility Measurement in Urban Transportation

MOE—Measures of Effectiveness

MPO—Metropolitan Planning Organization

MTTI—Mean Travel-Time Index

NCHRP—National Cooperative Highway Research Program

NHS—National Highway System

NPMRDS—National Performance Management Research Data Set

pcphpl—passenger cars per hour per lane

POG—Percent Arrivals on Green

PTI—Planning-Time Index

RHiNo—Roadway-Highway Inventory Network

SCAG—Southern California Association of Governments

SESRC—Social and Economic Sciences Research Center

SHRP 2—Strategic Highway Research Program 2

TMAS—Travel Monitoring Analysis System

TMC—Traffic Message Channel

TOPS-BC—Tool for Operations Benefit Cost Analysis

TTI—Texas A&M Transportation Institute

TWG—Technical Working Group

TxDOT—Texas Department of Transportation

VCTIR—Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research

VHT—Vehicle-Hours of Travel

VMT—Vehicle-Miles of Travel

VOR—Value of Reliability

VOT—Value of Typical Time

VTRIS—Vehicle Travel Information System

WIM—Weigh-in-Motion

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