U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
| REPORT |
| This report is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information |
 |
| Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-18-071 Date: February 2018 |
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-18-071 Date: February 2018 |
PDF Version (2.16 MB)
PDF files can be viewed with the Acrobat® Reader®
 |
 |
This Guide contains use instructions for the Congestion and Bottleneck Identification (CBI) software tool. The CBI was developed as part of the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) Traffic Bottlenecks Identification, Diagnosis, and Innovative Solutions to Local/Systemic Problems task order from 2014–2016. The purpose of this task order was to investigate new methods of bottleneck identification, and cost-effective strategies for bottleneck mitigation. The task order was focused on cost-effective strategies that were not dependent on advanced vehicle technology.
The CBI tool introduces novel analysis methods and performance metrics for comparing and ranking traffic bottlenecks. These methods involve processing millions of probe data records for the target years of analysis. Bottlenecks can then be ranked on the basis of annual delay intensity and travel time reliability. It is hoped that the new methods will be adopted by States and/or commercial products for a new level of robustness in congestion measurement. This Guide will be of interest to practitioners involved in the transportation operations discipline.
Brian Cronin
Director, Office of Operations
Research and Development
Notice
This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of the information contained in this document.
The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’ names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document.
Quality Assurance Statement
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides high-quality information to serve Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public understanding. Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of its information. FHWA periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement.
Technical Report Documentation Page
| 1. Report No.
FHWA-HRT-18-071 |
2. Government Accession No.
|
3 Recipient's Catalog No.
|
||
| 4. Title and Subtitle
Congestion and Bottleneck Identification (CBI) Software Tool User’s Guide |
5. Report Date
August 2018 |
|||
| 6. Performing Organization Code
|
||||
| 7. Author(s)
David K. Hale |
8. Performing Organization Report No.
|
|||
| 9. Performing Organization Name and Address
Leidos, Inc. |
10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS)
|
|||
| 11. Contract or Grant No.
DTFH61-12-D-00020 |
||||
| 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address
U.S. Department of Transportation |
13. Type of Report and Period Covered
Research Report |
|||
| 14. Sponsoring Agency Code
HRDO-20 |
||||
| 15. Supplementary Notes
The Contracting Officer’s Representative was Joe Bared, HRDO-20. |
||||
| 16. Abstract
To justify investments towards improved traffic operations, engineers and policy-makers need accurate and scientific methods of congestion measurement. However, conventional methods are limited and/or outdated. Peak-hour analyses fail to account for changing conditions throughout the year. Reliability modeling in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM), which attempts to capture these annual effects, has significant input data and calibration requirements. Data-driven intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies, which identify congestion in real time, still have room for improvement in the robustness of performance measures derived from them. Finally, comparing and ranking congested locations (i.e., bottlenecks) on the basis of experience and judgment lacks credibility unless backed by quantitative results. This guide discusses project-specific software that produced new and innovative performance measures for congestion measurement. Case studies of rankings of eight real-world bottlenecks demonstrated the benefits of multivariate analysis backed by intuitive visualizations. It is hoped that the new methods will be adopted by States and/or commercial products for a new level of robustness in congestion measurement. |
||||
| 17. Key Words
Probe data, Traffic bottleneck, Heat map, Travel time reliability |
18. Distribution Statement
No restrictions. This document is available to the public through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161. |
|||
| 19. Security Classification (of this report) Unclassified |
20. Security Classification (of this page) Unclassified |
21. No. of Pages
33 |
22. Price
|
|
| Form DOT F 1700.7 | Reproduction of completed page authorized |
