Transportation Performance Management

December 2014

1. Performance Measures & Reports
2. Safety & Mobility
3. Research & Technical Reports
4. Events, Conferences, Workshops, Webinars
5. Asset Management
6. Innovation
7. Performance Based Planning

1. Performance Measures & Reports

• NJTPA and NJDOT Complete Pilot Study of Potential MAP-21 System Performance Measures: Study Explores Strengths, Weaknesses of Highway Performance Measures
  NJTPA and NJDOT - 12/12/2014
  The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority and New Jersey Department of Transportation recently completed a study testing the types of system performance measures anticipated to emerge from federal rulemaking for the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP 21). In this study, available data was used to examine delay and reliability formulas for two distinct New Jersey highway corridors. The study offers insights into how different performance measure formulations can affect their interpretation, and hence the ways in which they may inform transportation investment decision making. While this pilot test was local in scope, observations should be broadly relevant as the measures considered are to be established nationally. Note that this technical study and its findings do not represent formal NJTPA recommendations or policies.

• The Gray Notebook (.pdf, 4.0 mb)
  WSDOT - 12/12/2014
  WSDOT's Quarterly Performance report on transportation Systems, Programs and department management.
  Published November 2014

• Freight Performance Measurement
  FHWA Office of Operations - 12/12/2014
  The FHWA Office of Freight Management and Operations and other stakeholders are developing performance measures for freight transportation. Freight-specific performance measures help to identify needed transportation improvements and monitor their effectiveness. They also serve as indicators of economic health and traffic congestion.

• Operation Performance Measurement
  FHWA Office of Operations - 12/12/2014
  Performance measurement is the use of evidence to determine progress toward specific defined organizational objectives. This includes both quantitative evidence (such as the measurement of customer travel times) and qualitative evidence (such as the measurement of customer satisfaction and customer perceptions).

  Operations performance measurement, therefore, measures progress toward meeting the objectives of transportation system management and operations. Although the specific objectives of management and operations activities vary among organizations, most relate to the overall goals of transportation mobility, productivity, and safety.

  The FHWA Office of Operations is leading numerous activities to advance the implementation and practice of operations performance measurement at the Federal, State, and local level

• Arlington County Commuter Services, VA Performance Report FY 2014 (.pdf, 10.0 mb)
  Arlington County Commuter Services - 12/12/2014
  Arlington County Commuter Services is the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) agency for Arlington County, Virginia. Established in 1989, ACCS provides information and innovative services to promote the use of alternative transportation modes and to lessen the need for single-occupancy travel to, from, and in the County.

  The tables on pages 10 and 11 show all of the ACCS performance measures as linked to the existing ACCS goals and how the selected performance measures are tied to the ACCS business units.

2. Safety & Mobility

• Time for Safety: Traffic Incident Management Handbook (.pdf, 7.3 mb)
  North Florida Transportation Planning Organization - 12/12/2014
  The purpose of this handbook is to establish standard guidelines and recommendations for traffic incident management and operations. The objectives of these guidelines are to improve safety of the responders, motorists, and victims and to enhance

• Highway Safety Performance 2014
  TRB - 12/12/2014
  TRB's Transportation Research Record (TRR): Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2435 consists of nine papers that examine the use of the Monte Carlo simulation for a sensitivity analysis of highway safety manual calibration factors; a variable speed limit control strategy; safety effects of signal improvements; guidance on customizing the Highway Safety Manual for Virginia; and injury severity in crashes on ramps and at crossroad ramp terminals.

  This issue also evaluates pavement safety on rural, two-lane highways; safety of hybrid main-line toll plazas; the transferability of the Highway Safety Manual freeway model to the Italian motorway network; and safety performance functions for freeways by considering interactions between speed limit and geometric variables.

3. Research & Technical Reports

• Incorporating Reliability Performance Measures into Operations and Planning Modeling Tools
  TRB - 12/12/2014
  TRB's second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-L04-RR-1: Incorporating Reliability Performance Measures into Operations and Planning Modeling Tools explores the underlying conceptual foundations of travel modeling and traffic simulation, and provides practical means of generating realistic reliability performance measures using network simulation models.

  SHRP 2 Reliability Project L04 also produced a report titled Incorporating Reliability Performance Measures into Operations and Planning Modeling Tools Application Guidelines that provides an overview of the methodology and tools that can be applied to existing microsimulation and mesoscopic modeling software in order to assess travel time reliability.

  SHRP 2 Reliability Project L04 also produced another publication titled Incorporating Reliability Performance Measures into Operations and Planning Modeling Tools: Reference Material that discusses the activities required to develop operational models to address the needs of the L04 research project.

  The L04 project also produced two pieces of software and accompanying user's guides: the Trajectory Processor and the Scenario Manager.

• Design Guide for Addressing Nonrecurrent Congestion
  TRB - 12/12/2014
  TRB's second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-L07-RR-2: Design Guide for Addressing Nonrecurrent Congestion catalogs highway design treatments that can be used to reduce nonrecurrent congestion and improve the reliability of urban and rural freeways.

  The draft design guide is accompanied by a report titled Identification and Evaluation of the Cost-Effectiveness of Highway Design Features to Reduce Nonrecurrent Congestion.

  SHRP 2 Reliability Project L07 also produced an Analysis Tool for Design Treatments to Address Nonrecurrent Congestion: Annotated Graphical User's Guide Version 2. The guide is intended to assist users of the Microsoft-based Excel tool designed to analyze the effects of highway geometric design treatments on nonrecurrent congestion using a reliability framework.

  The tool is designed to analyze a generally homogenous segment of a freeway (typically between successive interchanges). The tool allows the user to input data regarding site geometry, traffic demand, incident history, weather, special events, and work zones. Based on these data, the tool calculates base reliability conditions. The user can then analyze the effectiveness of a variety of treatments by providing fairly simple input data regarding the treatment effects and cost parameters. As outputs, the tool predicts cumulative travel time index curves for each hour of the day, from which other reliability variables are computed and displayed. The tool also calculates cost-effectiveness by assigning monetary values.

  Subsequent to the analysis tool's release, SHRP 2 Reliability Project L07 produced an Microsoft-based Excel demand generator as a supplement to the analysis tool.

• NCHRP 07-20 [Completed] Guidance for Implementation of Traffic Incident Management Performance Measurement
  TRB - 12/12/2014
  The objective of this research is to develop concise guidance on the implementation of TIM performance measurement that is applicable to a broad spectrum of transportation and incident responding agencies. Agencies to be addressed will include those in rural and urban settings, with a range of maturity in their TIM programs, and with a variety of data collection capabilities.

  STATUS: The revised final report has been received and is expected to be published in Spring 2015.

4. Events, Conferences, Workshops, Webinars

• T3 Webinar: Guidance Tool for Implementation of Traffic Incident Management Performance Measures (NCHRP 07-20)
  ITS-JPO - 12/12/2014
  Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2014
  Time: 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM ET
  Cost: All T3 webinars are free of charge
  PDH: 1.5 View PDH Policy

  This webinar will discuss the outputs of National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) 07-20: Guidance for Implementation of Traffic Incident Management Performance Measurement Project, show how the online tool can be utilized, and provide information on Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA's) TIM Performance Measures program and future plans. The objective of the NCHRP project was to develop concise guidance on the implementation of TIM performance measurement that would be applicable to a broad spectrum of transportation and incident responding agencies. The project, which was completed in November 2014, resulted in two products:

  1. Guidance document
  2. Online guidance tool

  Together these products provide a working framework to support an agency or TIM program in understanding TIM performance measurement and in establishing a TIM performance measurement database. The guidance provides consistent definitions, data sources, example reports, and data visualizations; discusses common challenges; and presents key points for success.

• Data Analysis Working Group Forum on Pavement Performance Data Analysis (.pdf, 0.2 mb)
  TRB - 12/12/2014
  "DAWG" FORUM ON PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE DATA analysis TO BE CONDUCTED IN WASHINGTON, DC, ON JANUARY 10, 2015 AT TRB'S 94th ANNUAL MEETING

• 2015 TRB 94th Annual Meeting: Only a Few Hotels Left
  TRB - 12/12/2014
  If you need a hotel room at the upcoming TRB Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., you should register and make your hotel reservation online now. With just one month remaining, 17 of the 20 hotels in the TRB room block have sold out. So this may be your last chance to book a room near the meeting at the Federal per diem rate of just $177/night plus tax.

  The Annual Meeting registration and hotel reservation processes are combined. Only registered attendees are permitted to reserve a hotel room in the TRB hotel block. The hotels in this block are easily accessible to the Convention Center via a variety of transportation options. No shuttle buses will operate between hotels and the Convention Center.
  Registration is required for all Annual Meeting attendees, including those who plan to attend any workshops, visit the exhibits, or take advantage of onsite programming and services.

  For the first time in almost 60 years, the TRB Annual Meeting will be moving to a new venue, the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Meeting attendees will be able to take advantage of new amenities such as free wireless Internet, expanded space for exhibits, and the convenience of all sessions taking place under one roof.

  The 2015 TRB 94th Annual Meeting, January 11-15, 2015, in Washington, D.C., covers all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 presentations in more than 750 sessions addressing topics of interest to all attendees—policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. The meeting, which draws attendees from throughout the United States and from more than 80 countries, is the single largest gathering of transportation practitioners and researchers in the world. As the meeting transitions to a new, modern facility, this year's theme is Corridors to the Future: Transportation and Technology.

• Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  TRB - 12/12/2014
  January 11-15, 2015 – Washington D.C.
  New venue, the Walter E. Washington Convention Center
  The TRB Annual Meeting program covers all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 presentations in nearly 750 sessions and workshops addressing topics of interest to all attendees—policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions.

  A number of sessions and workshops will focus on the spotlight theme for the 2015 TRB Annual Meeting, Corridors to the Future: Transportation and Technology.

  Registration is required for all Annual Meeting attendees, including those who register to attend any workshop, visit the exhibits, or take advantage of services provided onsite. Registration is required to secure a guest room within the TRB Hotel Block

• NHI Training Courses for Delivering Superior Freight and Transportation Logistics
  National Highway Institute - 12/12/2014

  139003 Advanced Freight Planning: Instructor-led Training (ILT)
  139006 Integrating Freight in the Transportation Planning Process: Web-based Training (WBT)
  139005 Linking Freight to Planning and the Environment: Instructor-led Training (ILT)
  139008 Freight and Land Use Workshop: Instructor-led Training (ILT)
  139009 Engaging the Private Sector in Freight Planning: Instructor-led Training (ILT)

5. Asset Management

• Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS)
  Office of Highway Policy Information - 12/12/2014
  The HPMS is a national level highway information system that includes data on the extent, condition, performance, use and operating characteristics of the nation's highways. The HPMS contains administrative and extent of system information on all public roads, while information on other characteristics is represented in HPMS as a mix of universe and sample data for arterial and collector functional systems. Limited information on travel and paved miles is included in summary form for the lowest functional systems.

• Transportation Asset Management Plans
  FHWA - 12/12/2014
  Asset Management Plan - a plan for managing the asset base over a period of time in order to deliver the agreed Levels of Service and Performance Targets in the most cost-effective way. Examples of Asset Management Plans that have been developed and can be found at the site links provided.

6. Innovation

• Innovative Applications of the Highway Capacity Manual 2010
  TRB - 12/12/2014
  TRB's Transportation Research Circular E-C190: Innovative Applications of the Highway Capacity Manual 2010 includes seven full technical papers and three extended abstracts focusing on applications of the Highway Capacity Manual 2010 (HCM 2010), as presented at the TRB 93rd Annual Meeting in January 2014.

• Blazing The Waze: FDOT Is The Traffic App's First U.S. Partner
  WLRN - 12/12/2014
  The agreement is purely a "data-sharing" partnership. Waze gets access to the stream of information produced by the road sensors FDOT uses to monitor traffic flow on Florida's major highways. And FDOT gets access to the myriad reports filed by Wazers.

7. Performance Based Planning

• Baltimore Region Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) 2014-2017
  Baltimore Metropolitan Council - 12/12/2014
  In accordance with federal guidelines, the TIP is a translation of recommendations from the long-range transportation plan, Plan It 2035, for the Baltimore region into a short-term program of improvements. This includes specific capacity improvements that have been identified in the long-range plan, as well as system preservation projects and operational initiatives that are supported in the plan but have not been previously detailed. As such, the TIP ensures consistency between plan recommendations and project implementation in the region.

• WSDOT 2014 Corridor Capacity Report (CCR) (.pdf, 6.8 mb)
  WSDOT - 12/12/2014
  The 2014 Corridor Capacity Report (CCR) was created to help inform WSDOT policy makers, planners and engineers as they examine the multimodal capacity opportunities for state highways. This report supports WSDOT's Practical Solutions and performance-based planning initiatives. It also apprises WSDOT, the Legislature, stakeholders, educational and research institutions, the media, and the public about highway system conditions and how we can work together to reduce congestion.

• ITS 2015-2019 Strategic Plan
  ITS USDOT - 12/12/2014
  Alignment of ITS Strategic Themes with USDOT Goal Areas and Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and performance measures