The Northeastern Illinois Regional Transportation Operations Coalition (RTOC) serves as a forum for collaboration to advance multi-modal transportation systems operations.
With the launch of ON TO 2050, the comprehensive regional plan, CMAP is dedicated to creating and maintaining a safe, efficient and seamless transportation system across the northeastern Illinois region. Coordinated management and operation of transportation infrastructure, resources and services is an essential element to achieving the region's long-range transportation goals. The purpose of Regional Transportation Operations Coalition (RTOC) is to establish an institutional forum and structure where regional operations can be addressed. With collaboration and coordination between transportation operators and planners, the region will experience a more efficient and safe transportation system across jurisdictional boundaries.
Transportation operators effectively manage the existing transportation network to ensure all users experience a smooth, safe and efficient regional transportation system. Ideally, this can be achieved by optimizing the existing regional transportation system through the collaboration of transportation operators, planners and emergency responders, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries or transportation mode. Another important aspect to efficient transportation operations is project coordination at the regional level to ensure a seamless and logical transportation network. The efficient operation of the transportation system is important due to high levels of congestion and the lack of available funding to significantly expand transportation capacity.
Transportation operators have a variety of strategies that help them achieve a more efficient transportation system which include:
- Traveler information services
- Freeway management
- Transit priority signal systems
- Centrally managed active traffic signal and arterial operations
- Incident management
- Road weather management
- Work zone management
- Freight and flight management
- Bottleneck identification and elimination
The effectiveness of each strategy is evaluated through regionally agreed-upon performance measures. Locally and regionally collected data and analytical tools are used to create performance measures that assist transportation operators to continuously monitor the transportation network in real-time and track changes to the network over time.
RTOC is expected to meet regularly, but not less frequently than quarterly, to discuss regional operations issues, needs and priorities. RTOC has a core group of participants consisting of regional transportation operators from all modes. RTOC is a forum for coordinating regional management and operations priorities, projects and strategies. The recommendations and coordination of management and operations projects and strategies will be achieved by smaller working groups, made up of agencies and stakeholders that are directly involved in the given project or strategy, which will report back to the core participants of RTOC.