Transportation Operations Goals and Accomplishments

Institute of Transportation Engineers

2001 Spring Conference and ExhibitDr. Christine JohnsonDirector, ITS Joint Program OfficeProgram Manager, FHWA Operations

March 28, 2001

Congestion has reached a boiling pointTransportation is part of the

public agendaCongestion is the No 1 political priority - Rep Young

…and people want more information to help them cope

In this past year….

• Dimensions of the problem

• What is required for “peak operating performance”

• Legislative Options

Dimensioning the Problem: Congestion

100110120

130140150160

170180

Index

1980

= 10

0

VMT (millions) Lane Mile Index

1980-1998

•Vehicle travel up 72%Road Miles up 1%

Dimensioning the Problem: Congestion

• 46% of peak period travel is congested

• 4.3 billion hours wasted

• No longer a big city problem– Congestion in small

areas grew 400%

Incidents

Disasters

Weather

Work Zones

Take Back The Road4 L

an

es o

f H

i gh

way

Demand Management

Operations

Dimensioning the Problem:Incident Management

• 60% of the Peak?

• 1:4 clearance to traffic back up

• Cost of wrong response?

• Benchmarks?

•

Dimensioning the Problem: Work Zones

Top of American’s traffic frustration list!

American’s top three traffic improvements are work zone related.

1 of every 5 state miles in California is under construction!

Its not the money for Maintenance

It’s the time!

Dimensioning the Problem: Weather

• 50% of U.S population run 5% risk of hurricanes

• 69% of Americans in snow belt

• 74% of NHS in snow belt

•A day long weather shutdown - $15-$93 million

What is it going to take to achieve Peak Performance?

1. Raise the bar of individual activities

2. Integrate

3. Tools and data

4. Performance Measure

5. Communicate with the public

6. Spend the money

Peak Performance Raising the Bar

•Operations Self Assessment

•Signal Timing Video

•Incident Management Guidance

•Public Safety Initiative

1234

5

6

7

8

9

10

0-100 d(i) 100-500 d(i) 500-1000 d(i)

1000-5,000 d(i)

5,000-10,000 d(i)

10,000-100,000 d(i)

500,000-1 Million d(i)

1 Million-5 Million d(i)

100,000-500,000 d(i)

5+ Million d(i)

SM

AL

L

IMP

AC

TB

IGIM

PA

CT

d(i) = degree of impact36

Peak Performance Raising the Bar

• Work Zone Hassle Index

•Divides delay by life of improvement

•Integrating weather information with traffic signal timing

Peak Performance Integration

• Architecture Rule • The Long Range Plan for

Operations

• Required in 4 years

• Brings right players to table

• 511• Public will demand seamless

information

Peak Performance Tools

• Turbo Architecture

• IDAS

• Quick Zone

• NGSIM

• Decision Support Tools

60%

65%

70%

75%

80%

85%

90%

95%

100%98%

97%

93%

88%

Date

Per

cent

age

of O

n-T

ime

Arr

ival

s

ATIS Driver

Habitual Driver

Trends in On-Time Arrival Reliability in Washington DC

29

Peak Performance Measures

• 511 – DOT a phone call away

•Quality

•Accuracy

•Capacity

At least I called ahead and delayed the meeting

Peak Performance Communicate with Customer

Consider an award for the best traffic web site?

Peak Performance Spend the Money

• Baseline data• States relatively flat 5-6%

• Cities have grown from 3% to

nearly 7%

• Launched Survey• Are we spending enough?

• Does operations compete well?

Legislative Options

1. Data – Minimum data collecting capability on NHS

2. Institutional Development

3. Policy - Provide for three distinct missions

4. Money

Transportation is the Circulation System of our Communities