The National Transportation Operations Coalition (NTOC) will conduct a free “Planning for Operations” webinar on August 2, 2011, from noon to 1:30 p.m. CT. The webinar, “Statewide Opportunities for Integrating Operations, Safety, and Multimodal Planning,” will cover the FHWA’s reference manual on this topic. The webinar will also cover real-world lessons learned of integrating these functions to improve investment decisions. The webinar is expected to help state and local agencies coordinate efforts in a multimodal context.

The Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released a capacity project brief on improving highway capacity through operations. Part of SHRP 2 Capacity project C05: Understanding the Contribution of Operations, Technology, and Design to Meeting Highway Capacity Needs, the brief summarizes methodologies developed to estimate the impacts of operational improvements relative to constructing additional capacity. It also provided two real-world examples where the new methodologies were tested using a dynamic traffic assignment model. A full report will be available later this year.

On January 11, 2013, the Federal Highway Administration released a request for comments on splitting the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) into two smaller documents. One document would have the federal requirements and the second document would include the recommended practices, which are not federal requirements.  Currently, the MUTCD is a single document that contains guidance and regulations on design and installation standards for traffic devices.  The proposed changes are meant to make the MUTCD more user-friendly and will not change or create any federal regulations.  The comment period ends March 12, 2013. 

CMAP will hold its annual operations and construction coordination meeting on Wednesday, February 6, 2013, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at its offices (233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago).  The meeting allows participating agencies to share information regarding planned 2013 construction with other transportation agencies in the region.  The Great Lakes Regional Transportation Operations Coalition will also discuss projects around the Great Lakes, focusing on the I-94 corridor. 

To RSVP or request additional information, please contact Claire Bozic (cbozic@cmap.illinois.gov or 312-386-8744). If unable to attend in person, register for the webinar.
 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) created a traffic analysis tools website on developing and deploying useful traffic analysis tools.  The traffic analysis tools program is divided into two sections for deployment and development.  The deployment track assists transportation professionals in facilitating the deployment and use of existing traffic operations analysis tools.  The development track focuses on the effort to develop new and improved tools to support traffic operations analysis.   

CMAP and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will present a two-day “Integrated Corridor Management with Analysis, Modeling and Simulation” Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) Workshop on January 9-10, 2012.

The event will take place at CMAP’s offices (233 South Wacker Drive, Suite 800, Chicago, IL). While the workshop will focus on the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway corridor, agencies outside of the corridor are invited and will benefit from the workshop information. This workshop is intended to motivate and equip participants to take advantage of specialized analytical tools to assess or refine Integrated Corridor Management concepts, designs, and plans.

To RSVP or to request additional information, please contact Claire Bozic (cbozic@cmap.illinois.gov or 312-386-8744).
 

On December 13, 2012, from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. CT., the Federal Highway Administration Office of Transportation Performance Measurement will host a webinar on the process and practice of transportation performance management as it relates to Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), the two-year transportation reauthorization bill. The webinar will cover the development and timeline associated with planning and implementing performance management and the performance measure rulemaking process. The webinar will also describe collaborative efforts between the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and its metropolitan planning organizations for transportation performance management.

The Federal Highway Administration (FWHA) Office of Operations will be hosting a workshop on the Localized Bottleneck Reduction (LBR) Program at the FHWA Chicago offices (200 W. Adams, Suite 330) on November 27, 2012. The LBR Program supports outreach to transportation professionals on how to find and implement quick, inexpensive solutions to localized constriction of traffic flow. The workshop will provide an overview of the LBR program, successful sample projects from other states, and discuss where the region is today and where it may go in the future.

The workshop is geared towards transportation professionals who have the ability to champion or execute a program to address low cost, quick-turnaround, spot congestion relief projects.

Please RSVP with Chris DiPalma by November 15, 2012.
 

The State of Illinois participates in the truck PrePass program, which allows transponder-equipped commercial vehicles to bypass weigh stations, port-of-entry facilities, and agricultural interdiction facilities. The PrePass program pre-screens commercial vehicle credentials and drivers’ safety records. Pre-screened commercial vehicles are then allowed to bypass facilities through the use of an automatic vehicle identification (AVI) system. The commercial vehicles credentials are regularly verified with state and federal agencies to ensure commercial vehicles abide the bypass criteria established by the member states and adhere to safety standards.

The PrePass program offers participants, both commercial vehicle drivers and member states, many benefits. Commercial vehicles bypassing facilities save drivers’ time, fuel, and operating costs. It also reduces congestion around facilities and allows law enforcement officials to focus on noncompliant commercial vehicles. The PrePass program also has the potential to make areas around facilities safer for drivers through fewer vehicle weaving movements and merging points. Commercial carriers that participate in the program pay system deployment and maintenance costs through monthly fees. The program is provided at no cost to the state and without a long-term commitment.

The State of Illinois currently operates six weigh and motion (WIM) stations in the CMAP region. The WIM stations are located in the southern part of the region on I-55, I-80, and I-57. It is estimated that the PrePass program has saved 516,250 driving hours, 2.4 million gallons of fuel, and reduced carbon monoxide emissions by 5,472 metric tons since the programs deployment.

Source: Travelmidwest.com

One of the most widespread and invisible pieces of intelligent transportation system (ITS) equipment is the vehicle detector, which is used to collect information about road traffic conditions. According to the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) 2010 ITS Deployment Survey, there are approximately 3,500 loop, video, and radar traffic detectors installed on arterials in northeastern Illinois. There are an additional 1,300 loop, radar and toll tag detector stations on the region’s expressways and tollways. This critical component of the region’s ITS system is easily overlooked, but the system operators have invested millions of dollars to deploy them on our expressways, tollways, ramps, and arterials. Detectors improve traffic signal operations and our ability to monitor and manage the system. Eight-four percent of our region’s freeway miles and 46 percent of the region’s signalized intersections are currently covered by electronic surveillance.

Vehicle detectors collect information about the presence or number of vehicles as well as vehicle speeds, multiple times per minute around the clock. However, vehicle detectors are only useful when they communicate the information they collect to places where it can be put to use, such as to traffic signal controller boxes to trigger green signals, to agencies where they can monitor traffic conditions and detect incidents, and to the public where information about traffic conditions can be used to make informed travel decisions. Accordingly, the thousands of vehicle detectors are accompanied by a vast communications infrastructure made up of copper wires, fiber optic cables, and wireless communications. As the region’s transportation network communication infrastructure is expanded, and backroom computer technology for interpreting the information evolves, we will improve our ability to manage the system in real time and even predict traffic congestion before it happens. In addition, in-vehicle data is now being collected for some cars and trucks; this data is providing an increasingly valuable data source for system traffic managers and will be the subject of a future post.

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is undertaking projects and programs to improve its detector system. First, I-55 and I-80 detection is now being expanded to include most of those expressways within our region. Second, over the next several years, expressway system surveillance will be expanded to include the entire Chicago metropolitan region. Third, IDOT regularly checks arterial and expressway detectors and repairs them as necessary and as traffic conditions allow.

As a resident of northeastern Illinois, vehicle detection impacts your daily travel if you plan your trip using Travelmidwest.com or Lake County Passage, which receive vehicle detector information in real time; at a traffic signal, where a detector informs the signal that you are waiting to proceed; when you read message signs providing travel time information; when you enter the expressway at one of the 113 metered ramps; if you wonder about the schedule for the Kennedy reversible lanes; when you drive through an open road toll location; or when you see a sign warning of a traffic backup ahead.
 

According to the Transportation Research Board, about 20 percent of the National Highway System is under construction each year. In 2010, nearly 600 people died in work zone crashes, 32 of them in Illinois. The Illinois Tollway and Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) are using Smart Work Zones, an Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) based program, to make travel through and around work zones safer and more efficient. Smart Work Zones include portable electronic message boards to communicate with drivers, portable traffic sensors to monitor traffic flow and slow downs, and portable camera units to provide a view of the work zone. Technology can even help with work zone speed limit enforcement. IDOT staff reported a significant downward trend in the number of speeding violations after message boards began to display the number of citations issued. There have been challenges in implementing the Smart Work Zone program, such as coordinating the efforts of multiple contractors and ensuring that the equipment deployed by contractors can communicate with the agency traffic and incident management systems. However, these challenges are expected to be eliminated as time passes, and Smart Work Zones become standard practice for every road construction project. The U.S. Department of Transportation Work Zone Mobility and Safety Program has many examples of how ITS technology is being deployed in work zones nationwide.

The Federal Highway Administration recently released a brochure on the foundation for performance-based management of transportation operations programs. The brochure provides a quick overview of why measuring operations performance matters and how operations-related transportation projects are a very cost-effective solution to congestion. It also provides examples of successful effective operations performance measures already implemented in different regions of the US. The brochure outlines the process on how to start such a program.

On Tuesday, July 17, 2012, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations will host an “Overcoming the Challenges of Congestion Pricing” webinar on incident management and access for managed lanes from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. CT. The webinar will focus on the challenges and opportunities of incident management that arise from different types of managed lanes. The webinar will also provide tips, effective practices, and lessons learned of how incident management is handled on existing managed lanes projects in the U.S.

The Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released “Performance-Based Highway Maintenance and Operations Management.” The report provides a nationwide synthesis of the current practice of using performance-based highway maintenance and operations management at state departments of transportation (DOTs). Four case studies provide guidance for other state DOTs interested in applying performance-based management practices. Two case studies focus on the processes and procedures required to build and maintain a performance-based approach, and two other case studies examine the application of the approach to management and operations program management.

As part of the CMAP Congestion Management Process, staff has created new 2011 congestion scans for expressway segments in northeastern Illinois. Congestion scans show average speed by milepost by time of day for the freeway segment. The congestion scan is a visual display of when and where, on average, a driver will experience lower speeds along a freeway segment.

On Tuesday, June 19, 2012, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations will host a webinar launching the Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Public Outreach Toolkit from noon to 1:30 p.m. CT. The public outreach toolkit focuses on two laws, “Move It” (625 ILCS 5/11-402) and “Slow Down/Move Over” (Scott’s Law, 625 ILCS 5/11-907 (c)), enacted by Illinois and many other states to manage and clear traffic incidents quickly and safely. The “Move it” law requires motorists who are involved in a traffic incident to move their vehicles out of the lanes of traffic if they are able and it is safe to do so. The “Slow Down/Move Over” laws require motorists to reduce speed and move over when they see the flashing lights of emergency response vehicles. The toolkit will provide agencies with free customizable outreach tools to educate the traveling public on these two laws.

Also, immediately following the webinar until 2:00 p.m. CT, an optional “Media 101” training will be held to provide tips for partnering with the media in local public awareness campaigns.
 

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Professional Capacity Building (PCB) Program will host a “Talking Technology and Transportation (T3)” webinar on Thursday, June 7, 2012 from noon to 1:30 p.m. CT. This webinar will be an interactive conversation on why transportation agencies adopt ITS programs and will provide real examples of adopting and deploying ITS technologies. The conversation will assist in the development of ITS policies and activities at the federal and state levels.

As part of CMAP’s Congestion Management Process, staff has compiled performance measures for the regional freeways from 2011. The performance measures include a travel time index, a planning time index, and congested hours.

The travel time index is a measure of average congestion and indicates the average extra travel time required during peak period congestion. Travel time index is a ratio of the average peak-period travel time compared to the free-flow travel time. For example, a value of 1.20 means that average peak travel times are 20 percent longer than free-flow travel times.

The planning time index is a measure of reliability and is defined as the ratio of the total time needed to ensure a 95 percent on-time arrival to the free-flow travel time. For example, a value of 1.4 means that, to arrive on-time 95 percent of the time, a traveler should budget an additional eight minutes for a trip that takes 20 minutes during off-peak, free-flow conditions.

Congested hours are an indication of how many hours per day a facility is congested. Technically, "congested hours" are defined as the average number of hours in which at least 20 percent of the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on the instrumented segment is congested. For this measure, congestion is defined to occur when link speeds are less than 50 mph.
 

On Wednesday, May 16, 2012, the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Office of Freight Management and Operations will host a “Talking Freight” webinar on the impacts of heavy or oversize truck shipments on the U.S. highway network from noon to 1:30 p.m. CT. The increased demand for heavy load trucks, which haul oversized or overweight loads and require special permits, have created significant impacts on the roads and communities they operate in. The webinar will provide examples of how states and communities are mitigating or have dealt with the increasing heavy truck volumes on the transportation system.

 The Federal Highway Administration recently released a primer on ways to integrate operations into a regional intelligent transportation system (ITS) architecture. The primer will provide transportation planners and operations staff effective strategies to apply planning for operations through the regional ITS architecture. Many transportation management and operations strategies have an ITS component that lends itself to being a part of a regional ITS architecture. The regional ITS architecture should be updated and/or created in a coordinated effort between transportation planners and operations managers to make sure it is relevant and easy-to-use in planning for operations.