Enhancing Active Transportation and Demand Management (ATDM) with Advanced and Emerging Technologies and Data Sources

Chapter 4. Planning and Organizational Considerations

Planning for an active transportation and demand management (ATDM) implementation is a complex process and involves advanced planning. Because ATDM expects new solutions involving emerging data sources and technologies, it may bring with it new planning steps and modified organizational approaches to deploying agencies. This chapter includes the following sections:

• Organizational Capability — Provides an overview of the organizational capability concepts that support successful ATDM operations.
• Planning for Modified ATDM Operations — Discusses specific efforts that an agency undertakes to plan for operations, including scenario planning and use of data.
• Setting Objectives and Performance Measures — Describes the importance of identifying objectives and performance measures for operations.
• Analysis, Modeling, and Simulation — Discusses the types of analyses that an agency can conduct to assess the feasibility and potential impacts of ATDM solutions on specific corridors.
• Programming and Budgeting — Describes strategies for programming and budgeting for ATDM solutions on a regional basis.

An excellent reference across all the above-mentioned topics is FHWA's Organizing and Planning for Operations website.¹

4.1 Organizational Capability

ATDM is a more integrated approach toward real-time operations and rests on a foundation of robust systems management and requires a degree of organizational maturity to be successful. To adjust to ATDM solutions, organizations are required to proactively manage transportation systems.

Figure 19 illustrates a stair-stepped approach towards increased active management: static management, responsive management, followed by proactive management. Agencies with a very low level of capability in systems management and operations are probably not ready for ATDM deployment, lacking the adequate business processes, supporting technology, and required workforce to be effective.

FHWA has developed a Traffic Management Organizational Capability Maturity Model (TM CMM) to aid in assessing an organization and a set of tools that can assist transportation agency managers with self-assessments of their organization's development.⁽⁶¹⁾ Four dimensions that are most relevant to ATDM implementation are: (a) staffing, (b) education, (c) organizational changes, and (d) new business processes. These tools can be used by agencies to address the non-technological challenges involved in ATDM. The levels of organizational maturity defined by the FHWA TM CMM, as shown in figure 20, move from level 1 with some programs mostly information and champion driven, to level 2 with some developed processes, to level 3 where performance is measured and programs are formally budgeted, to level 4 where formal partnerships exist and performance-based improvements are the norm.

The FHWA Traffic Management Capability Maturity Framework (TM CMF) is structured around these four levels of organizational maturity. Based on the level at which an agency resides for each dimension, a list of actions that the agency can undertake to advance its capabilities to the next level is provided.

The four factors of organizational capability (staffing, education, organizational changes, and new business processes) can be used to help agencies identify the current state of their operations programs and provide guidance for improved levels of program effectiveness.

Staffing

Improvements to transportation management functions and traffic management center (TMC) operations are not only brought about through new physical components, hardware, and software but also through people—their training, skills, and core competencies. The following staffing questions serve to prepare the staff for ATDM:

• How prepared are agency TMC users for emerging data (e.g., their challenges, technical skills, etc.)?
• What is the expected user experience for agency operators? User experiences are as important as data and systems integration in the success of new software functions.
• What are the desired outcomes of the end user's tasks (e.g., will they impact other aspects of the organization or other users)? Designing the user interfaces and business process flows to be intuitive is an important element in software adoption.
• How will agency users access the big data systems and tools (e.g., local client software, intranet, internet)?

Education

The challenges of maintaining a skilled workforce equally apply to ATDM operations, which will likely require a greater number of skilled staff, specifically at the TMC. Dynamic operations, which are likely to be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, can require more staffing and skills an agency may not have. Also, the technologies supporting these solutions may be more complex than traditional intelligent transportation system (ITS) deployments. Comprehensive training is needed for agency staff to become familiar with the functionalities of new systems before deploying new ATDM solutions. The following questions focusing on education aid an agency planning for ATDM:

• What skills in databases, software installation, software maintenance, application scripting, dashboarding, and analytics does the agency already have? How can personnel with such skills be obtained?
• Is there flexibility to acquire agency staff with these skill sets (i.e., redefine roles, expand technical staff groups)?
• Is there a mechanism to obtain these skills if they cannot be addressed by current staff or roles (i.e., contract/outsource, training)?

Organizational Changes

Agency culture is important in promoting ATDM throughout an organization. A new role as an active operator of a system or network to improve throughput, reduce congestion, and increase travel time reliability requires leadership vision, communications, and changes in the organizational structure. ATDM deployments benefit from support from the respective agency decision makers, and constant engagement and communication are essential to promote ATDM as a core operating philosophy. Increased education and outreach to policy makers and decision makers within the agency can help to facilitate this cultural transition.

New Business Processes

Scoping, planning, evaluating, and budgeting processes are key business process elements to examine. Given the broad range of operational strategies and the experimental nature of ATDM solutions, agencies may need to address and modify business process elements for greater consideration and adoption of ATDM solutions.

Business processes that drive the scoping, planning, evaluating, and budgeting processes are key elements to examine. Evidenced from the various statewide operations plans and ITS strategic plans, the role of operations strategies is increasingly becoming clear. With the emphasis on planning for operations, leading State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are developing robust practices to include operations strategies in planning, programming, and prioritizing. As defined in the FHWA TM CMF, the optimized organization has formalized processes, programs, partnerships, and a demonstrated record of performance-based improvements, ready for ATDM.⁽⁶⁸⁾

4.2 Planning for Modified Active Transportation and Demand Management Operations

Planning for ATDM operations benefits from leveraging of ongoing efforts and institutional partnerships in a region. These partnerships serve as the foundation for such efforts as freeway management and operations, regional traffic incident management, and arterial traffic management and operations. Planning for operations is structured around an objective-driven, performance-based approach, as illustrated in figure 21. The rationale for this approach is to link planning and operations to improve transportation decisions to effectively enhance the overall network by ensuring investments work to meet regional goals and objectives.

As a result, a program plan that incorporates ATDM solutions will typically go beyond traditional infrastructure and deployment needs and identify how agencies and regions can address ATDM project planning, lifecycle costing of equipment and other infrastructure investments, and operations and maintenance (O&M) of the ATDM solutions. Specific aspects of planning for ATDM operations can include scenario planning, new data uses, new technology uses/expertise, training, and information technology (IT) considerations.

Scenario Planning

Scenario planning can be helpful in the development of ATDM solutions. Scenarios can vary by specific environmental or background characteristics, such as deploying ATDM solutions during planned events (work zones or special demand generator) and in response to incident or emergency conditions (closed lanes or inclement weather). Preferably, agencies should describe ATDM operational scenarios from a user perspective, inclusive of typical day-to-day operations. A predetermined ATDM operational plan can detail how normal, or recurrent, ATDM operations would function in addition to specific scenarios that would necessitate change or unique application. For example, if dynamic shoulder use is to be deployed along a facility, the operating agency should determine how that shoulder will be managed in the event of an incident.⁽³⁶⁾ Potential scenarios could include (a) opening the shoulder to traffic if not already operational to help alleviate congestion caused by the incident, or (b) closing the shoulder to traffic if already open to accommodate emergency response personnel to access the incident. In either scenario or some other variation, the operating agency needs to determine how the strategy will be deployed, for what purpose, and for what duration, and identify other stakeholders and that partners need to be incorporated into the decision to implement the scenario. Planning elements that may be included within an ATDM scenario plan are agency roles and responsibilities, traveler information needs specific to the dynamic nature of the ATDM solutions, system interoperability (how different components of the ATDM solutions interact and communicate with other ITS infrastructure in place and any legacy systems), stakeholder roles, and risk allocation. Simulation exercises can help agencies assess various ATDM scenarios and operational strategies by evaluating the impact of specific components or the inclusion of select user groups.

New Data Uses

The use of data for planning ATDM solutions principally involves collecting accurate and reliable data. Overall, data needs are linked to monitoring and modeling needs. Data enhance an agency's ability to determine the extent and duration of congestion and system performance and to estimate potential performance benefits on the network of an ATDM strategy. For operational purposes, data often require detailed granularity that can allow analysts to examine the potential for incremental changes at specific locations. Longitudinal data are necessary for seasonal and year-to-year comparisons. Data needs are typically driven by the establishment of performance metrics, as defined by the regional needs and goals of the project or program.

Sources for data can vary. Data for ATDM may originate from regular data collection programs or special studies, usually in conjunction with implementing a new ATDM strategy. A range of entities can provide data on a continual or regular basis and may include internal agency groups or private third parties. Examples include travel demand models, TMC data, transit ridership records, crash records, third-party mobility data, or citation data. More agencies are relying on private entities to provide data, particularly for measuring mobility and congestion. Agency coordination is important in the planning phase to facilitate data sharing, help determine ATDM solutions to implement and prioritize corridors and areas for those solutions. As ATDM solutions are incorporated into the planning process, agencies should ensure that data are identified and collected to support the performance measures used in that process.

New Technology Uses and Expertise

New technology uses and expertise consider how agencies are responding to the upgrading, replacement, and integration of systems in the world of rapidly changing technologies.

Nationally, operations agency personnel and management have a basic, but growing, understanding of the systems approach, architecture use, and standardization, especially for ITS projects that are Federally funded and, thereby, require the use of systems engineering. While some operational strategies have become fairly standard and commonplace, the ongoing maintenance, management, replacement, and upgrading of systems is a challenge to most organizations, and these challenges will most likely also apply to ATDM solutions, which involve new technology that is unfamiliar to many agencies. Additionally, the dynamic nature of ATDM solutions involves significant sensor and communications investment that increases the complexity of the ITS infrastructure needed to operate the systems. Thus, agencies may want to ensure that the capabilities are in place to support these complex systems and ensure reliable operations to optimize performance.

Training

Different areas of staff education and training should also be considered, which impacts costs. Active traffic management (ATM) solutions generally involve more complex ITSs that may be unfamiliar to agency planners, designers, construction personnel, and TMC operators. The following are specific training efforts that an agency might consider:

• Peer-to-peer exchanges with other transportation agencies that operate similar ATM deployments, to include document sharing, teleconferences, webinars, or site visits for key agency personnel.
• Structured mentoring and training between experienced operators and junior operators to formally provide junior operators additional learned knowledge regarding complex operations, automated features, and decision support system (DSS) responses.
• Cross-training to ensure sufficient operations staff are available to facilitate 24 hours a day/7 days a week operations and to cover in the event of staff absences or departures.
• Safety training for personnel in the field, including maintenance staff, law enforcement, incident response teams, emergency management, and transit drivers, especially if ATM in any way impacts how they conduct their job duties.

4.3 Setting Objectives and Performance Measures

Performance measures and system performance monitoring are crucial components of planning for operations.⁽²⁸⁾ Performance measures are indicators of how well the transportation system is performing and are used in several ways in the objectives-driven, performance-based approach to planning for operations:

• Track progress toward operations objectives.
• Identify needs and system performance deficiencies.
• Assess potential impacts of O&M strategies.
• Evaluate effects of implemented projects.
• Communicate progress to stakeholders.

Performance measures are inextricably tied to operations objectives. ATM solutions usually need more regular monitoring and maintenance of performance, given the significance of overall program goals and scrutiny of newly implemented solutions.

The importance of the quantitative nature of performance measures cannot be understated, as is clearly explained in chapter 4 of FHWA's Freeway Management and Operations Handbook.⁽²²⁾

Setting Objectives and Performance Measures for Active Transportation and Demand Management

Performance measures for ATDM solutions should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound), should clearly relate to agency goals and objectives, and shall be driven by the capability to collect the data and conduct analyses. Key groups of measures include travel time reliability, congestion management, safety, and sustainability and livability.

In particular, the Active Traffic Management (ATM) Implementation and Operations Guide. Report FHWA-HOP-17-056 identifies multiple performance measures used in Europe for ATM deployments: ^{(17, 37)}

• Speed differential between lanes.
• Duration of speed less than x mph.
• Frequency of speed less than x mph.
• Flow/speed plots.
• Lane utilization.
• Headway distribution.
• Vehicle speed distribution.
• Vehicle hour delay.

The Highway Capacity Manual contains a chapter on ATDM that recommends four measures of effectiveness for evaluating ATDM-related objectives: ⁽⁹⁾

• Person miles traveled (PMT).
• Average delay per mile traveled.
• Average system speed.
• Planning time index (PTI).

In addition to these measures, the Guide for Highway Capacity and Operations Analysis of Active Transportation and Demand Management Strategies recommends: ⁽²³⁾

• Vehicle-miles traveled (VMT)-demand.
• VMT-Served.
• Vehicle-hours traveled.
• Vehicle-hours delay.
• Vehicle-hours of entry delay.
• Vehicle-hours delay/vehicle-trip.
• 80th percentile travel time index.

Recurring Congestion — Objectives & Performance Measures

Travel time reliability — A key aspect of performance that symbolizes the larger effect of day-today variation in travel conditions. Traditional measures related to travel speed and delay do not capture the dimension of reliability, therefore, other metrics are typically used. Specific characteristics help guide the selection of travel time reliability performance measures, as defined by specific goals, availability and quality of data, and geographic scope and intent of the program. The buffer index (BI) is a measure of travel reliability that can account for the varied distribution of travel times. The PTI represents how much total time a traveler should allow for ensuring on-time arrival, as opposed to more time represented from the BI. PTI is useful because it can be compared to the travel time index. Example objectives and performance measures related to travel time reliability include:

Objective	Performance Measure
Improve efficiency for passengers and freight	BI PTI Travel time index

Congestion Management — Beyond travel reliability, multiple dimensions of mobility should be assessed within an ATDM performance measurement program. Commonly, an appropriate characterization of performance should include the extent of congestion, or the size of the population and user groups impacted by degraded conditions. Example objectives and performance measures related to congestion management include:

Objective	Performance Measure
Reduce congestion	Highway delay Travel speed Vehicle-hours of travel Passenger travel times Person throughput Number of bottlenecks Customer satisfaction

Non-Recurring Congestion — Objectives and Performance Measures

Non-recurring sources of congestion, such as work zones, special events, and adverse weather, share a common set of objectives and with them corresponding performance measures. Many non-recurring events can be expected and, with preparation, bring specialized opportunities to measure and respond. Example objectives and performance measures related to non-recurring congestion include: ⁽³²⁾

Objective	Performance Measure
Reduce roadway clearance time:	Time between first recordable awareness of incident by a responsible agency and first confirmation that all lanes are available for traffic flow.
Reduce incident clearance time:	Time between first recordable awareness of incident by a responsible agency and time at which the last responder has left the scene.
Reduce number of secondary crashes:	Number of unplanned crashes beginning with the time of detection of the primary incident where a collision occurs either (a) within the incident scene or (b) within the queue, including the opposite direction, resulting from the original incident.

Safety — Objectives and Performance Measures

Safety is an important goal that often justifies the purpose and funding of implementing an ATDM strategy. Compared to mobility and congestion, assessing safety-related performance usually requires years to collect enough baseline data to justify a statistical sound evaluation process that supports valid conclusions. The selection of specific metrics is related to the overall safety goals for the program, the availability and quality of data, and the type of geography for the assessed ATDM strategy. Example objectives and performance measures related to safety include:

Objective	Performance Measure
Reduce fatalities and injuries on all public roads	Incident rate Incident detection/response/clearance Total fatalities and serious injuries Excess travel time due to incidents Percent vehicles exceeding speed limit by x%

Livability — Objectives ad Performance Measures

Performance related to livability may be tied to metrics that assess environmental characteristics. Oftentimes within an ATDM context, environmental measures include elements that entail emission of volatile compounds and local impacts on noise. An assessment of air quality entails quantifying the change in ozone precursors over time, specifically nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide. Energy and fuel use, as measured by gallons of gasoline, is another metric that can be associated with assessing environmental impact. Example objectives and performance measures related to livability include:

Objective	Performance Measure
Environmental sustainability Enhance performance while protecting and enhancing the natural environment	Level of emissions Number of days exceeding air quality

4.4 Analysis, Modeling and Simulation

FHWA and its State and local agency partners have relied on analysis, modeling, and simulation (AMS) to support investment decisions for the transportation system. As the transportation system environment grows in complexity, increasing pressure is placed on agencies to identify more innovative and efficient solutions to a wide range of issues. These solutions include leveraging emerging technologies, data sources, and alternative (non-traditional) strategies. AMS tools will continue to play a critical role in evaluating these solutions. In fact, section 1430 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (Public Law 114-94) includes the sense of Congress that the Department of Transportation utilize AMS tools "to the fullest and most economically feasible extent practicable" to analyze highway and public transportation projects².⁽⁴⁶⁾ As transportation solutions become more sophisticated and complex, corresponding AMS tools will need to evolve; AMS tools must be able to effectively and fully quantify the benefits of proposed solutions.

Traffic analysts depend on software and analytical tools and methodologies to investigate the performance of present transportation facilities and predict the possible improvement from future implementations. The objectives for using these tools is to facilitate the decision-making process, evaluate and prioritize planning and operational alternatives, improve evaluation time, reduce cost, reduce traffic disruption, present transportation strategies to road users or stakeholders, and monitor roadway performance.

Dozens of AMS tools and methodologies designed for conducting analysis of one or more ATDM solutions have been identified to date. These tools and methods can generally be segmented into three broad categories:

• Sketch-planning methods — These analysis methods provide simple, quick, and low-cost estimation of ATDM strategy benefits and costs. Often based in a spreadsheet format, these methods typically rely on generally available input data and static default relationships between the solutions and their impact on a limited number of measures of effectiveness (MOEs) to estimate the benefits of the solution. A number of established benefit/cost (B/C) tools, including Tool for Operations Benefit Cost Analysis, Screening Tool for ITS, and California Lifecycle Benefit Cost Analysis, are classified as sketch-planning methods; however, this category also includes scores of individually developed and customized spreadsheet and simple database methods configured to support various analyses by single agencies. The Highway Capacity Manual (TRB. 2016) provides methodologies and software components for analyzing ATDM solutions, therefore it falls under this category.
• Post-processing methods — These methods are often more robust than sketch-planning methods, as they seek to more directly link the B/C analysis with the travel demand, network data, and performance measure outputs from regional travel demand or simulation models. Several established tools, including ITS Deployment Analysis System and the FITSEval application, have been designed to directly accept detailed model data as inputs to the analysis. The tools then provide additional analysis within their framework to assess impacts to MOEs outside the capabilities of typical travel demand models. Outside of these more established tools, these post-processing methods also include customized applications, algorithms, and routines that may be applied directly within a region's existing modeling framework to produce the required MOEs. These methods are often more capable of assessing the impacts of route, mode, or temporal shifts than sketch-planning methods.
• Multiresolution/multiscenario methods — These analysis methods are often the most complex of the methods and are typically applied when a high level of confidence in the accuracy of the results is required. These methods are most often applied during the final rounds of alternatives analysis or during the design phases when detailed information is required to prioritize and optimize the proposed solutions. Multiresolution methods depend on the integration of various analysis tools (e.g., linking a travel demand model and a simulation model, including mesoscopic or microscopic simulation tools) to provide meaningful analysis of the full range of impacts of an operational strategy – capturing both the long-term impacts on travel demand, along with the more immediate impacts on traffic performance. Meanwhile, multiscenario methods seek to assess strategy performance during varying underlying traffic conditions. In this analysis, the impact of a particular ATDM strategy may be tested under a variety of conditions (e.g., incident versus no incident, good weather versus rain conditions versus snow conditions) to fully capture the benefits under all the likely operating conditions. This type of analysis often requires that the analysis model be run multiple times to capture these effects.⁽¹⁰⁾

Table 5 shows the appropriate geographic scope and resources required for each of the three types of AMS tools. These two factors are critical in selecting appropriate methods/tools for use.

Table 5. Analysis, Modeling, and Simulation Tools and application attributes.

AMS Tool	Geographic Scope	Resources Required
Sketch-Planning Methods	Isolated location Corridor Subarea Regionwide	Budget — Low ($1K to $25K) Schedule — 1 week to 8 weeks Staff expertise — Medium Data availability — Low
Post-Processing Methods	Corridor Subarea Regionwide	Budget — Medium/High ($5,000 to $50,000) Schedule — 2 months to 1 year Staff Expertise — Medium/High Data Availability — Medium
Multiresolution/Multiscenario Methods	Corridor Subarea	Budget — High ($50,000 to $1.5 million) Schedule — 3 months to 1.5 years Staff Expertise — High Data Availability — High

A recent FHWA effort was dedicated to developing AMS testbeds for the dynamic mobility applications (DMA) and ATDM programs³. The primary objective of this project is to develop multiple simulation testbeds/transportation models to evaluate the impacts of DMA connected vehicle applications and ATDM solutions. The objective of this study was to analyze the approaches and requirements for forecasting transportation conditions and predicting system performance to support real-time performance-based management. The concept is for the TMCs to have a comprehensive view of the transportation system in real-time and use that view to predict how the system will behave (i.e., the performance of the transportation system) within the next 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or 1 hour. If the predicted performance over that time does not meet the desired performance target, the TMC operator/manager can proactively implement operational solutions or actions to influence and alter the future performance in a favorable manner to align with the performance objectives/goals. These actions may include providing real-time information about the predicted conditions to travelers, implementing operational strategies such as congestion pricing, parking information/restrictions, hard shoulder use, speed harmonization, ramp metering and control, optimizing traffic signal timing, changing transit frequency, adjusting the mix of transit services, etc.

Through this project, six virtual testbeds were developed and used for DMA and ATDM evaluation. The testbeds are diverse in terms of their geographic scope, modeling tools, modeled applications, and solutions, and answered research questions and produced over 24 deliverables to the U.S. Department of Transportation. FHWA also published a Primer to help public agencies understand how the portfolio of products developed under this project can be useful in conducting their own ATDM analysis.

Additionally, the Traffic Analysis Tools Program was formulated by FHWA in an attempt to strike a balance between efforts to develop new, improved tools in support of traffic operations analysis and efforts to facilitate the deployment and use of existing tools. The FHWA Traffic Analysis Toolbox has many useful guidance documents. Through the FHWA Traffic Analysis Tools Program, agency partners and customers will expand their use of analysis tools and innovative analysis approaches that consider a system-level approach and will enhance mobility. They will gain insight on recommended/best practices and lessons learned in operational analysis. They will gain a high level of confidence in utilizing the analysis tools for their local needs. The proactive role from FHWA will enable analytical tools and DSSs to reach their full potential to support a viable transportation community in a manner sufficient to make a significant contribution to evolving traffic congestion and management problems.

4.5 Programming and Budgeting

Partnerships and collaborations are often essential to implementing ATDM, particularly through the programming and budgeting process. Securing funding for transportation projects is highly competitive given the nature of limited and constrained resources. Federal policy mandates and guides many components of planning, programming, and funding projects. ATDM solutions can be included within an improvement or long-range plan once an agency or project sponsor determines that it can complement or improve upon Statewide, regional, or local goals. However, ATDM solutions will have to compete with other projects to gain approval for funding.

The processes that make up the programming elements of planning will differ from State to State and will entail the steps that agencies must undergo to select projects for funding. Project sponsors often develop a decision-based framework with financial considerations for implementation. States and regions, as represented by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), coordinate their efforts through the development of the long-range transportation plan, taking into consideration changes in overall demand and improvements to the transportation system. MPOs are required to develop short-range transportation improvement programs (TIPs) that can include select ATDM solutions if those projects are estimated to have a high priority⁴.⁽⁴⁰⁾ States are also required to develop similar short-range plans, commonly known as a Statewide transportation improvement program (STIP)⁵.⁽⁴²⁾

In developing full lifecycle budgets for ATDM, agencies considerations cannot be limited to acquisition costs. Instead, the programming and budgeting process must consider the costs:

• New recurring costs.
• New operations and maintenance (O&M) cost and models.
• New capital costs.
• System refresh costs.