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Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations

 
REPORT
This report is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information
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Publication Number:  FHWA-HRT-12-054    Date:  December 2012
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-12-054
Date: December 2012

 

Methodologies to Measure and Quantify Transportation Management Center Benefits: Final Synthesis Report

7. Evaluation Reporting

Evaluation reports may be prepared for the following purposes:

An example of a report includes the Houston TranStar 2009 Annual Report.(52) This report describes the project's mission, management structure activities, agency participants, and user statistics. In addition to providing such performance measures as the number of managed incidents and the number of motorist aid program assists on a system-wide basis, it describes the following outcome-oriented measures:

This bar chart shows the average incident clearance time for years 2004 through 2009. Incident clearance time is on the y-axis from zero to 60 min, and year is on the x-axis from 2004 through 2009. The average incident clearance times are as follows: 35.1 min in 2004, 33.1 min in 2005, 45.0 min in 2006, 36.6 min in 2007, 49.0 min in 2008, and 36.6 min in 2009.

Figure 58. Graph. Annual average incident clearance time.

Agencies might consider the addition of a band in the columns shown in figure 59 and figure 60, which represents the standard error of the estimate or some other measure of error.

This bar chart shows the estimated annual motorist cost savings for years 1997 through 2009. The estimated cost savings are on the y-axis from zero to $350 million, and year is on the x-axis from 1997 to 2009. The estimated annual motorist cost savings are as follows: $46.3 million in 1997, $69.2 million in 1998, $95.5 million in 1999, $110.9 million in 2000, $133.2 million in 2001, $166.3 million in 2002, $167.3 million in 2003, $264.7 million in 2004, $266.1 million in 2005, $286.0 million in 2006, $300.1 million in 2007, $308.5 million in 2008, and $272.0 million in 2009.

Figure 59. Graph. Estimated annual motorist cost savings attributed to Houston TranStar operation.(52)

This bar chart shows the Houston TranStar benefit-cost ratios for years 1997 through 2009. The estimated benefit-cost ratio is on the y-axis from zero to 14, and the year is on the x-axis from 1997 through 2009. The estimated benefit-cost ratios are as follows: 2.7 in 1997, 3.9 in 1998, 5.3 in 1999, 5.2 in 2000, 6.0 in 2001, 7.3 in 2002, 7.0 in 2003, 11.6 in 2004, 10.0 in 2005, 10.6 in 2006, 12.9 in 2007, 11.4 in 2008, and 9.9 in 2009.

Figure 60. Graph. Houston TranStar benefit-cost ratio.(52)

7.1 Michigan ITS Center

The monthly report developed by the Michigan ITS Center provides a detailed overview of performance.(53) In addition to providing measures such as the number of motorist messages, it includes outcome-oriented statistics such as freeway service patrol response and clear times
(see table 26 ).

Table 26. Freeway service patrol performance statistics.

Freeway Segment (Miles) Total Assists Assist Density Average Response Time (min) Average Clear Time
Sept. 2010 FYTD Average Sept. 2010 FYTD Average Sept. 2010 FYTD Average Sept. 2010 FYTD Average
I-75
Oakland County Line to I-696 37.0 42.0 391.0 11.4 10.6 17.6 16.7 8.8 10.0
I-696 to I-94 8.0 273 252.3 34.1 31.5 9.8 10.2 13.5 10.8
I-94 to I-96 5.6 88 71.0 15.7 12.7 12.0 11.0 11.5 10.3
I-96 to I-275 37.0 270 281.7 7.3 7.6 14.0 14.4 8.0 8.2
I-75 Total 87.6 1,051 995.9 12.0 136.4 13.6 13.4 10.0 9.7
I-94
Washtenaw County Line to M-39 20.7 357 329.3 17.2 15.9 12.5 13.5 8.8 9.0
M-39 to I-75 9.0 278 275.8 30.9 30.6 12.8 11.5 10.3 9.6
I-75 to I-696 10.0 294 281.3 29.4 28.1 13.8 12.4 9.2 9.0
I-696 to St. Clair County Line 21.0 130 194.6 6.2 9.3 19.0 13.7 6.0 7.8
I-94 Total 60.7 1,059 1,080.9 17.4 213.7 13.6 12.5 9.0 8.9
I-96
Livingston County Line to
I-275/I-696
11.0 127 122.9 12.5 11.2 15.3 17.3 8.2 8.2
I-275/M-14 to M-39 12.0 244 243.5 20.3 20.3 11.6 12.5 10.6 8.7
M-39 to I-75 11.0 370 312.6 33.6 28.4 10.6 11.6 9.0 8.1
I-96 Total 34.0 751 679.0 22.1 239.6 12.0 13.3 9.4 8.4
I-275
I-96/I-696 to M-14/I-96 8.0 121 116.2 15.1 14.5 12.5 15.1 8.2 8.8
M-14/I-96 to I-94 12.0 120 146.8 10.0 12.2 14.3 13.6 9.0 8.0
I-94 to I-75 17.5 63 72.9 3.6 4.2 11.6 13.6 11.2 8.0
I-275 Total 37.5 304 335.8 8.1 10.7.5 13.4 14.2 9.1 8.3
I-696
I-96/I-275 to M-10 9.3 176 146.8 18.9 15.8 14.1 14.4 8.9 8.7
M-10 to I-75 9.0 143 145.7 15.9 16.2 14.0 12.6 8.0 8.8
I-75 to I-94 10.4 181 194.4 17.4 18.7 14.5 12.5 8.2 8.5
I-696 Total 28.7 500 486.9 17.4 203.6 14.2 13.0 8.4 8.7
M-59 (Veterans 24.0 26 28.9 1.1 1.2 15.0 19.9 9.7 10.1
I-375 1.2 6 8.7 5.0 7.2 11.0 13.1 3.3 8.7
M-10 (Lodge) 17.9 332 351.8 18.5 19.7 11.2 11.2 8.7 9.4
M-14 6.4 60 70.3 9.4 11.0 11.4 13.9 6.2 7.7
M-39 (Southfield) 14.2 249 269.1 17.5 18.9 10.7 11.9 10.0 9.6
M-5 (Grand River) 10.3 43 37.8 4.2 3.7 12.6 14.5 7.9 8.0
M-8 (Davison) 2.2 29 45.7 13.2 20.8 8.9 8.7 9.3 9.7
Total 324.7 4,410 4,390.8  

Note: FYTD = Fiscal year to date.

7.2 Naperville, Il (website)

New timing plans were implemented based on periodic examination of traffic conditions. Formal evaluations were conducted in conjunction with signal retiming projects. An example of such a study is shown in table 27 through table 29.(54)

Table 27. Example of Naperville, IL, travel time/delay summary.

Time Period

Travel Direction

Condition

Travel Time (s)

Delay (s)

Stops

Average Speed (mi/h)

Morning peak

Eastbound

Before

920.0

474.3

11.7

17.2

After

697.0

245.7

7

22.7

Change

223.0

228.6

4.7

5.5

Percent change

24.2 percent

48.2 percent

40.2 percent

32.0 percent

Westbound

Before

675.3

239.3

6.3

23.5

After

568.0

168.7

3.7

27.9

Change

107.3

70.6

2.6

4.4

Percent change

15.9 percent

29.5 percent

41.3 percent

18.7 percent

Midday

Eastbound

Before

624.0

194

6

25.4

After

542.7

111

5

29.3

Change

81.3

83.0

1.0

3.9

Percent change

13.0 percent

42.8 percent

16.7 percent

15.4 percent

Westbound

Before

687.3

251

6.7

23.1

After

552.0

152

3

28.7

Change

135.3

99.0

3.7

5.6

Percent change

19.7 percent

39.4 percent

55.2 percent

24.2 percent

Afternoon peak

Eastbound

Before

732.3

293

6

21.7

After

635.3

194.7

3.7

25

Change

97.0

98.3

2.3

3.3

Percent change

13.2 percent

33.5 percent

38.3 percent

15.2 percent

Westbound

Before

916.3

486.7

9.3

17.3

After

736.0

312.7

7.3

21.6

Change

180.3

174.0

2.0

4.3

Percent change

19.7 percent

35.8 percent

21.5 percent

24.9 percent

Table 28. Naperville, IL, vehicle emmisions summary-percent reduction.

Time Period Travel Direction Hydrocarbons (Percent grams/day) Carbon Monoxide (Percent grams/day) Nitrogen Ovide (Percent grams/day)
Morning peak Eastbound 7 2 -11
Westbound 5 -5 -1
Midday Eastbound 5 2 -2
Westbound 13 1 12
Afternoon peak Eastbound 9 8 5
Westbound 10 2 3

Table 29 Naperville, IL, vehicle emmisions summary—annual emission reduction.

Time Period Hydrocarbons (tons/year) Carbon Monoxide (tons/year) Nitrogen Oxide (tons/year)
Morning peak -16 10 10
Midday -40 -71 -13
Afternoon peak -28 -140 -6

 

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