Oregon transportation data products and services are provided to local, regional, state, and national government agencies, and the private sector. Data is used for transportation planning, project delivery, design, construction, operations, maintenance, funding apportionment, legislation, and regulatory activity. It is essential to conducting ODOT business to have access to affordable, high-quality data. A large portion of the department's data products and services are provided by the Transportation Data Section (TDS). The Trans Data Portal provides a single resource for data: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/Pages/Data_Portal.aspx
TDS activities are guided by a 10-year business plan that provides the vision, goals, and objectives associated with fulfilling agency data needs. This plan is implemented by following a set of strategies:
State and federal regulations require the use of reasonably current data for transportation modeling and analysis. The Oregon Travel and Activity Survey (OTAS) was the first in-depth study of household travel behavior in Oregon in nearly 15 years. Previous surveys were conducted between 1994-96, and in 1985 and 1977. These data are necessary to estimate travel demand models used for transportation planning analysis, including air-quality conformity, long-range planning, and evaluating transportation investment alternatives. Surveys are traditionally conducted every 10 years, since household activities and population demographics change over time.
The 2009-2011 survey was a joint effort among agencies conducting modeling in Oregon. The joint effort was administered through the Oregon Modeling Steering Committee (OMSC), of which ODOT is a member, and asked approximately 18,000 households to identify where and how they traveled on a typical weekday. In order to ensure a representative sample for the study, each household was asked a series of detailed questions about the household's access to transportation and its socioeconomic characteristics during the recruitment phase. These data will be used to estimate how much travel is generated by all households across the State of Oregon. Differences in activity patterns, by region and household characteristics, will be evaluated and the findings integrated into current analysis and forecast tools.
As is required for all states, Oregon collects and processes traffic-related data on public roads within the state. Data collected include traffic volume and vehicle class information on federal, state, and some local roads, and data are available in several formats, including seasonal-trend tables and automatic traffic recorder (ATR) characteristic table and maps.[6] In addition to ODOT, some local agencies also collect traffic count data.
ODOT compiles, maintains, and performs quality assurance checks on the motor vehicle crashes database. The database includes information on vehicle crashes on city streets, county roads, and state highways; it also provides geographic coordinate values for mapping crash sites. Crash data since 1985 are included in the database. Crash data are provided on demand to state and local governments, MPOs, law enforcement, the legislature, public media, consulting firms, and private citizens. An online crash reporting tool is also available. In addition, ODOT publishes several annual documents, including motor vehicle traffic crashes quick facts, a crash summary book, crash by injury severity facts, crash by road type facts, and a crash rate book.[7] The Oregon Traffic Records Coordinating Committee (TRCC) is responsible for providing guidance and leadership to improve transportation safety in Oregon. Its membership comprises representatives from highway safety, highway infrastructure, law enforcement and adjudication, public health, injury control, and motor carrier agencies and organizations.
The Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) includes information on the condition, use, performance, and operating characteristics of the nation's highways. The HPMS data are submitted to the FHWA annually to support the biennial Condition and Performance Reports to Congress and for annual Highway Statistics publications.
The HPMS Submittal includes limited data on all public roads, more detail on selected samples on the Arterial and Collector functional systems, and statewide summary information. The sampling process allows ODOT to gather data on a limited number of samples while statistically representing the entire state. Oregon currently has over 2,200 samples, with 100% of the Interstates and Freeway/Expressways sampled. Samples on the rest of the Arterials and Collectors have expansion factors. These factors represent the ratio of universe mileage to sample mileage for a category of roads. Expanding data from the samples provides the ability to create robust summaries of data about various road systems. The additional sample data provides more detail about traffic, pavement, and geometrics.
Asset Management is a process and decision-making framework that uses economic, business, technology, and engineering considerations to make cost-effective investment decisions that consider an extended timeframe. The goal of any Asset Management process is to use a system-wide approach in order to improve operations and make the organization more effective by considering the full investment and lifecycle of assets. In recent years, Asset Management has gained considerable support in many organizations, including transportation agencies. Asset Management is beneficial to transportation agencies because it supports informed decision-making for planning, policies, and programs to help manage assets as effectively as possible. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) supports Asset Management; they developed the Transportation Asset Management (TAM) Guide to help agencies implement their own Asset Management programs.
ODOT was an early adopter of an asset management approach. Recent efforts have expanded to develop a more comprehensive program. Broader Asset Management efforts started with the formation of the Oregon Transportation Management System (OTMS), designed to manage automated methods for projects, such as bridge, pavement, and safety management systems. By 2006, ODOT conducted an asset management pilot, followed by creating the Asset Management Integration (AMI) Section in 2007 to staff the ongoing effort.
The work of AMI, building on existing Asset Management successes at ODOT, continues efforts to add capacities for proactive management. AMI efforts followed recommendations from national organizations such as AASHTO and the FHWA, and were supported by research looking at national and international transportation agencies. Key Asset Management efforts include:
Positive impacts from these initiatives are already apparent: Noticeable cost-savings have come from sharing the data gathered via a web-based tool and inventory data helped make the case with FHWA for a 1R (mainly pavement) Program. In addition, communication and data-sharing improvements have resulted in more cross-divisional collaborations, and additional inventory has also helped with other compliance requirements and improved programmatic plans.
ODOT faces several challenges to fully integrate Asset Management principles. Future work will include a focus on improving communication throughout the agency, changing the business culture to fully incorporate Asset Management methods, and maintaining the focus and momentum of past asset management efforts. ODOT has developed an Asset Management Strategic Plan to guide this vision. This plan outlines the agency's course of action by fulfilling four goals:
In support of these goals are the Implementation Plan, Communication Plan, and Technology Strategy, which are listed in this document. The four goals will be implemented through the actions identified in three related plans: the Implementation Plan, the Communication Plan, and the Technology Strategy.
State data are available to support asset management at ODOT:
ODOT recently implemented a new enterprise database, TransInfo, to track linear assets. So far the system has been configured to contain state highway information needed for the annual Highway Performance Monitoring Submittal (HPMS), and other data used for managing culverts, bicycles and pedestrian facilities, and a variety of other physical and logical highway features. The database includes some financial tracking information so that ODOT can better tie physical assets to the financial system. Monthly updates of road inventory information from TransInfo is also provided online with a tool that allows users to run various reports for information on user-defined portions of the highway system.
The State Highway Digital Video Log is a pictorial record of state highway features from a driver's perspective. The Digital Video Log (DVL) consists of digital images in both increasing and decreasing milepoint directions. Two images (one straight ahead, and the other angled to the right) are captured every 26 feet. The online application presents DVL images with a corresponding milepoint log. Images can be accessed either through a tabular web interface, or by using the TransGIS online webmap tool. Oregon's DVL began as an interagency exchange of software from Washington State and Oregon's Marion County. Oregon has since rewritten the software and continues the legacy of sharing by occasionally assisting local agencies and other parts of ODOT with their video log needs. Most recently, Oregon completed Video Log collection of all the new MAP_21 NHS routes, including about 300 miles owned by local governments. This enables ODOT's Outdoor Advertising Program staff and others to have an immediate record of conditions on the new NHS routes.
The agency uses Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) data to manage passenger and freight traffic. ITS data collected by ODOT includes:
ODOT provides geographic information products and services through the development of spatially enabled applications, databases, mapping products, analysis, education, and technical support. Activities include:
Resources/tools provided include the following:
In addition to TransGIS, there are a number of other useful web mapping applications available to the public, including:
ODOT's work using GIS tools has been recognized nationally. The agency has received recognition through the AASHTO GIS for Transportation Conference, including, but not limited to:
The Oregon Transportation Management System (OTMS) has evolved. Most of its original seven components remain:
The study concluded that a full deployment of operational treatments in large urban areas could reduce delay by about 23%. The study also concluded that public transportation services alone could reduce delay in the Portland area by about one third of the area's annual delay. The metropolitan areas in Oregon have already implemented a number of operational treatments, including promoting public transit use, incident management, and use of Intelligent Transportation Systems.
[6] For more information, the reader is referred to the following website: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/TP/Pages/Data.aspx
[7] For more information, the reader is referred to the following website: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/TDATA/pages/car/CAR_Publications.aspx
[8] Statewide Congestion Overview for Oregon, February 2004. The report is available here: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/TP/CM_HERS/overview0204.pdf
