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21st Century Operations Using 21st Century Technologies
Table of Contents

Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Program: Major Achievements, Key Findings, and Outlook

Chapter 1. Introduction to ICM

Traditionally, operations in urban transportation corridors are handled independently by each transportation network operator within a corridor, focused on their individual systems rather than the corridor as a whole. For example, the State DOT would focus on the freeway system that they own and operate, and the city DOT focuses on their arterial system and managing the signals that they own, while the transit operator manages their fleet that operates in the same corridor, but autonomously, without regard to traffic disruptions on the freeway or arterial system or the actions of the State or city operators. These agencies are mostly reactive to any incidents on other systems. They may collaborate or interact to some extent to deal with incidents or pre-planned events occurring within the corridor, but each transportation network operator mostly handles day-to-day operations independently, without communication with other transportation network operators. As congestion becomes heavier and incidents increase within corridors, this independent operation of transportation networks is becoming less effective in meeting the transportation needs within a corridor.

The vision for ICM is that transportation networks will realize significant improvements in the efficient movement of people and goods through institutional collaboration and aggressive, proactive integration of existing infrastructure and systems along major corridors. Through an ICM approach, transportation professionals manage the corridor as a multimodal system “whole” and make collaborative operational decisions for the benefit of the wider corridor.

Integrated Corridor Management Provides:

  • Communication, collaboration, and trust among network operators that goes far beyond what regions had initially

  • Consensus business rules and agreements for corridor operations

  • Integrated, active management approach

  • A cross-network understanding of corridor operations that did not exist before

  • Expanded network data sets and data sharing that did not exist before; better integration

  • Identification of network/corridor problem areas and consensus support for resolving those problems

Background

In 2006, the USDOT initiated the ICM Demonstration Program to research the integration of the operations of all transportation networks (e.g., freeway, arterial, transit, rail, etc.) within a corridor, to maximize the effectiveness of their use and to mitigate the effect of incidents that affect the movement of people, goods, and services within the corridor. This integrated operation of corridor transportation networks became fundamental to the development of Integrated Corridor Management Systems (ICMS). After a national search for candidate corridors conducted through a competitive 3-stage process, the USDOT initiated the first ICMS with deployment projects in two corridors — U.S.75 in Dallas, TX and I-15 in San Diego, CA. Evaluations of these ICM demonstration projects were completed in 2017. Additionally, the USDOT provided seed funding to 13 more deployment planning sites to further facilitate ICM deployment throughout the country. All the ICM sites were surveyed to elicit their key concerns and findings with planning, developing, and deploying ICM. A summary of these program activities and their outcomes will be discussed in this ICM Program Overview Report. Additionally, the USDOT is providing guidance, based on outcomes of the ICM program, to assist agencies in implementing mainstream ICM and creating supporting analysis tools, approaches, and technical standards.

This report is organized as follows:

  • Chapter 1 is the introduction.
  • In Chapter 2, the major ICM research program achievements are described, including key findings from each phase of the program, including subsections on:
    • Foundational Research
    • Initial Deployment Efforts (the Pioneer corridor site process)
    • Promoting ICM Deployment (planning grants)
    • Ongoing ICM Knowledge Transfer
  • Next, Chapter 3 provides a short discussion of the overarching findings and outcomes of the ICM program.
  • Chapter 4 conveys how ICM deployments can help to lay a foundation for future transportation advancements and contains high-level suggestions for research and knowledge transfer activities.
  • Appendix A provides more depth on the important topic of ICM Decision Support Systems (DSS), including challenges, constraints, and suggestions for research.
  • Appendix B provides a question-and-answer format for frequently asked questions about the ICM program. Readers may find this section particularly useful in answering straightforward FAQs that we’ve heard at our workshops and meetings.
  • Appendix C is the acknowledgements section.
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