Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources

A Summary Report on the 2007 National Congestion Summits

September 2007

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources

September 2007
A Summary Report on the 2007 National Congestion Summits Prepared by Michael Meyer

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) 444 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 249 Washington, DC 20001

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Front cover photo credits: Diane Decker, courtesy of Florida Turnpike; EmX, courtesy of Lane Transit District. Copyright 2007, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). All Rights Reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

contents
Introduction the Congestion Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 CHAPTER 1 Topics for High-Payoff Shared Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 CHAPTER 2 Key Themes Emerging from the Summits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Congestion Reduction Strategies from Around the Nation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

CHAPTER 3

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources iii

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

 2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Working to Free America from the Congestion Crisis

In May 2006, the U.S. Department of Transportation launched a major initiative to combat the traffic congestion that causes 3.7 billion hours of delay each year and costs well over $78 billion annually. As Secretary Mary Peters said early this year, Unprecedented economic activity is driving unprecedented demand for transportation services. That means, now more than ever, America cannot afford to be tied-up in traffic. It is time for all Americans to stop accepting congestion as a fact of life or as just another cost of doing business. The status quo is not working for our families or our future, and it is threatening our freedom. When I was elected as the President of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, I urged that this association work to assist the U.S. DOT to share successful solutions states have developed to reduce the congestion crisis. The result was the launching of four congestion summits held across the country during 2007 to bring together federal, state, and local transportation experts to identify those strategies that can work to ease the delays occurring on our transportation system. I want to express my appreciation to the more than 250 participants and to the National Cooperative Highway Research Program which helped support this effort. Congestion has been described as a by-product of Americas own success. Traffic has grown because our transportation system has enabled the growth of a thriving economy. When the construction of the Interstate Highway System began in the late 1950s, there were 65 million vehicles creating 600 billion vehicle miles of travel. Fifty years later, there are over 240 million vehicles creating 3 trillion vehicle miles of travel. All this on a highway system that has grown by only 15 percent. It is little wonder that the nation faces a congestion crisis, and it is a credit to the transportation community that congestion is not exponentially worse. Nonetheless, with the population expected to grow to 440 million by 2055 and traffic possibly to 7 trillion vehicle miles of travel, it is imperative that transportation officials focus their vision on achieving a congestion-free America. The solutions described here can help motorists today and spark a larger debate for even better solutions tomorrow.

Victor Mendez President, AASHTO Director, Arizona Department of Transportation

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 
2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

 2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

introduction

The Congestion Challenge

hroughout its history, the growth and prosperity of the United States has been closely tied to the ability of the nations transportation system to move people and goods. This has been especially true over the past 50 years as the population of the country increased by 75 percent and the national gross domestic product increased by almost 400 percent. Absorbing this growth while maintaining a high quality of life could not have occurred without a transportation system that provided the mobility and accessibility needed. However, the ability of the nations transportation system to support future growth and provide a good quality of life to future generations is being threatened by growing levels of congestion. With an expected population of 440 million 40 years from now, this is indeed a serious challenge. Congestion on Americas transportation systems is not a new problem. Crowded cities have historically been places where movement was constrained. Ports and other transportation transfer locations, which naturally serve as destinations for large travel markets, not surprisingly have been congested during the busiest times of the day. What is new in todays world is the extent and duration of congestion and, in many cases, the unexpected locations where congestion now can be found. According to the Texas Transportation Institutes 2007 Urban Mobility Report, between 1982 and 2005:

Annual hours of delay per peak traveler rose from 14 to 38; The number of urban areas with more than 40 hours of delay per traveler rose from 1 to 28; The total hours of delay rose from 800 million to 4.2 billion; and The annual cost of congestion rose from $14.9 billion to $78.2 billion.

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Congestion is now occurring in what can no longer be called non-peak hours. Suburbs, which for many years served as havens for those escaping the congested conditions of center cities, now are often more congested than the center cities themselves. Transportation terminalsairports, ports, transit stations, and warehouse/ distribution centersare more crowded than ever. Although congestion was once considered a phenomenon associated with work trips, today all types of trip purposes often experience congestion somewhere during the trip. In 2006, the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) identified congestion relief as a top priority and launched its National Strategy to Reduce Congestion. The effort includes seven components:

Urban Partnership Agreements, PublicPrivate Partnerships, Corridors of the Future, Reducing Southern California Freight Congestion, Reducing Border Congestion, Increasing aviation capacity, and Operations and Technology Improvements.

Complete information on the program is available on the U.S. DOTs website at http://www.fightgridlocknow.gov/. In recognition of the serious impact that congestion has to the nations economic future, and the key role state transportation departments must play in resolving it, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) conducted congestion summits in cooperation with the 2007 meetings of its four regional affiliates: Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials, Southeastern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Mississippi Valley Conference of State Highway and Transportation Departments, and Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The purpose of these summits was to identify innovative strategies and initiatives states have adopted to deal with congestion. As noted by Victor Mendez, Director of the Arizona Department of Transportation and the 2007 President of AASHTO, Congestion affects our quality of life, economic competitiveness in the global marketplace, and environmental quality.... States need to exchange information and identify the lessons learned from those who are aggressively pursuing congestion solutions. Often constrained by limited resources, many states are nonetheless implementing innovative strategies for solving congestion problems in their states and metropolitan areas. The intent of these summits was for the states to learn from one another about what was possible and how states department of transportation (DOT) leadership could make a difference in improving transportation system performance.

 Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

As we move into a possible future where congested transportation facilities become the norm rather than the exception, it is incumbent on state transportation officials to sound the warning on what this will mean to quality of life, economic prosperity, and environmental quality. Victor Mendez, Director, Arizona DOT; and 2007 President, AASHTO

Congestion Summits Conducted at 2007 Regional Meetings

Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials Manchester, Vermont June 35, 2007 Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Las Vegas, Nevada July 711, 2007 Mississippi Valley Conference of State Highway and Transportation Departments Minneapolis, Minnesota July 911, 2007 Southeastern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Huntsville, Alabama August 38, 2007

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

 2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Chapter 1

Topics for High-Payoff Shared Learning

uring the four regional congestion summits, state transportation officials produced a wealth of ideas and examples on potential strategies for reducing congestion. The following topics are identified as having the greatest potential to combat the nations congested highways.

As we grow in population, we can see congestion will be an ever-increasing problem for those responsible for the nations transportation system. We need to discover the successes from the 50 laboratories that are the state DOTs. The sooner we share, the sooner we can solve our problems. Pete Rahn, Director, Missouri DOT; and 2007 Vice President, AASHTO

1. Role of Pricing Many summit participants believe that pricing strategies are some of the most important tools that can be used to manage demand. The use of highoccupancy toll (HOT) lanes in southern California is an example of the types of strategies that are being considered in other parts of the country. The U.S. DOTs Urban Partnership Program, one of the components of the National Strategy, offers further demonstrations of the application of congestion pricing. There is a strong desire on the part of many states to establish some form of institutional mechanism to provide easy dissemination of the lessons learned from these and similar projects.

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

HOT Lanes Gaining Ground

HOT lanes emerged in 1993 as a congestion-relief solution first implemented in California. HOT lanes operate alongside regular highway lanes. They deliver free-flowing traffic conditions by using toll prices to manage the flow of traffic choosing to use the lanes. When there is not much traffic, toll prices are low. When congestion increases, toll prices go up to regulate the number of drivers wanting to enter the lanes. Fully electronic tolling enables commuters to enter and exit the HOT lanes without stopping or slowing down at toll booths. Since 1993, four states (California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Texas) have implemented HOT lanes to help ease congestion. But other metropolitan areas are considering the option as a means to manage traffic demand during peak travel hours. HOT lanes in the U.S. include:

I-10 in Houston, Texas I-15 in San Diego, California I-25 in Denver, Colorado

I-394 in Minneapolis, Minnesota SR-91 in Orange County, California

One of the first HOT lanes was established on I-15 in San Diego. Since 1998, single-occupant vehicles pay a per-trip fee each time they use the I-15 HOT lanes. Tolls vary dynamically with the level of traffic demand on the lanes. Fees vary in 25-cent increments as often as every six minutes to help maintain free-flow traffic conditions on the HOV lanes. The project generates $2 million in revenue annually, about one-half of which is used to support transit service in the corridor. For further information, visit the Federal Highway Administrations website on Congestion Pricing: A Primer at http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/congestionpricing/sec4.htm.

U.S. DOT Announces Urban Partnerships to Fight Congestion

Miami, Minneapolis Area, New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle Area Selected On May 16, 2006, the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) announced its new National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on Americas Transportation Networkan initiative to reduce congestion on the nations roads, rails, runways, and waterways. One major component of the National Strategy is the Urban Partnership Agreement (UPA). Under a UPA, U.S. DOTs partner metropolitan areas will commit to pursuing aggressive strategies under the umbrella of the Four Tstolling, transit, telecommuting, and technology a combined approach to reducing traffic congestion. In August, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced the selection of five Urban Partnership Agreement proposals: Miami, $62.9 million; the Minneapolis area, $133.3 million; New York City, $354.5 million; San Francisco, $158.7 million; and the Seattle area (King County), $138.7 million. Every Urban Partner project proposes some form of congestion pricing, although the tolls may be subject to action by city or state officials.

2. 511 Implementation and Use The 511 traveler-information program is used by the majority of states, and most of those remaining will be coming online soon. There is a sense among summit participants that states can learn a lot about how others have fared with their implementation, and, most importantly, how this program can be used by state transportation agencies to better manage their transportation systems.
 Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources
2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Floridas 511: A Much-Relied-On System Innovates

The 511 conceptgiving motorists a single phone number (typically paired with a website) to contact for upto-date traffic informationhas been used by drivers all over the nation since its state-by-state launch early this decade. In Florida, an early-adapting state where distances are vast and populations are large and road-crowding, 511 has been continuously improved to make it an ever-more-useful tool in the anti-congestion arsenal. Since its inception in 2002, Floridas 511 numbers have logged more than 17 million calls and its 511 websites have drawn a million hits per month. Florida implemented its 511 systems by region, starting with Central and Southeast Florida in 2002, the Tampa Bay area in 2004, Northeast Florida in 2006, and Southwest Florida in 2007. A service offering statewide information also was launched in November 2005. During its years in service, the Central Florida/Statewide system has added features that let users preprogram up to 11 often-traveled routes so they can get instant access to updates by phone. The system also now lets motorists give tips to traffic central about incidents, which are posted on 511 following verification. Other steps to improve accuracy and timeliness of information have been taken on Floridas 511 systems. When contracts for the regional services expire in 2008, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will press for replacement with a single, statewide service that will eliminate transfers of calls between regions and other service-slowing steps now necessary. Polling done for FDOT in 2006 showed that 511 users trust the information they get enough to alter their routes. One-third of those who use the service call ahead before starting their trip and about two-thirds use it after getting on the road and encountering problems.

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Legend

Bottleneck Location Interstate Highways Annual Truck Hours of Delay

Less than 25,000 25,000500,000 500,001750,000 750,0011.2 million More than 1.2 million

Interstate bottlenecks.

3. Bottleneck or Choke-Point Investment Bottlenecks are critical choke points in a transportation network and often have far-reaching impacts on network efficiency. A study released in 2004 by the American Highway Users Alliance estimated that bottlenecks account for about 50 percent of driver delays. Several states have developed targeted investment programs aimed at eliminating bottlenecks. These programs include capacity expansion, intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies, operational strategies, and consideration of pricing to reduce demand. A recent AASHTO report, A New Vision for the 21st Century, suggests a priority program beginning in 2010 to target investment to solve the 100 worst truck-freight bottlenecks in the country by 2015. 4. Integrated Corridor Management Strategies Because of the connected nature of most transportation networks, solving a problem at one location could easily have spillover effects elsewhere. To deal with congestion systematically, several states apply an integrated system-management approach toward corridor investment. This includes the coordinated operation of freeways and major arterial roads, surveillance and dissemination of road-performance information throughout the corridor, and application of ITS technologies to allow travelers to make informed decisions about the modes, times of departure, and paths for their trips.

 Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Integrated Corridor Management: Texas Pioneers Three Approaches

The U.S. Department of Transportation is working closely with several state transportation departments to move forward on a concept that makes great sense, but is complex: coordinating the traffic in a corridor across systems with the goal of getting the maximum number of people where they want to be, when they want to be there. Years ago, such coordination would have been beyond anyones power. But with todays technologyspecifically, the hardware and software of intelligent transportation systemsbringing highways, arterials, and rail and bus systems into a single, coordinated system is moving into the realm of possibility. Since 2000, the population of Texas has increased by 1.3 million people, or 6.1 percent; this is the equivalent of adding a city the size of San Antonio in three years. The U.S. growth rate in this time has been 3.3 percent. A large part of the population growth is occurring in urban areas. The 34 counties that comprise the metropolitan areas of Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, El Paso, Houston, and San Antonio saw a combined increase of 1.1 million people in just three years accounting for 83 percent of the states population growth. More people mean more drivers on already congested urban roads. For the user, transportation is one system. It either gets you where you want to be in a timely way, or it doesnt, said Amadeo Saenz, Assistant Executive Director for Engineering Operations for the Texas Department of Transportation. We need to take the different systems that make up transportation in a given area and make them work together as one system. Texas is serving as the laboratory for three of the nations eight pioneer sites for what is known as Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) with work in this area being done in Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas. In Houston, a city with a population of 890,000 that is expected to reach 2.4 million by the year 2025, two heavily-used roadways serve 43,000 trips per day. State and local officials, recognizing the need to help the areas transportation system smoothly move more people, got stakeholders including TxDOT, the Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority, Harris County, the City of Houston, an existing multiple-agency transportation manager known as TranStar, and the Houston-Galveston metropolitan planning organization to begin working together on integrated corridor management. Using TranStar as the hub, the agencies have begun coordination across all their platforms using existing ITS including video capability, dynamic message signs, automated vehicle identification, and a regional incident management system. In San Antonio, TxDOT is working with the local transit agency and the City of San Antonio on the IH-10 northwest corridor, which is used to access the downtown and River Walk areas, a major amusement park, shopping centers, the headquarters of USAA Insurance, a university, and a major hospital. San Antonios program relies on shared information and a unique access to ITS along arterial roads. Goals include upgrading web access to traffic information, providing alternate routes, giving bus riders real-time information at the street level, and deploying advanced ITS on arterials. In Dallas, the objective is to operate the I-75 corridor in a multimodal, integrated fashion to improve traveltime reliability, improve incident management, increase transit capacity, and improve traveler information so better choices can be made before trips begin. Texas has more of these ICM sites than any other state, but with the work being done in Texas and the other four states (California, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington) before long, running a corridor as a system should be commonplace and make travel a better experience, Saenz said.

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

 5. Border Crossings and Freight Facilities Summit participants agree that the reliable movement of freight is a key transportation policy and planning issue. Yet, summit participants feel that very little is known about what strategies are appropriate for improving freight flows. Several states discussed their initiatives for freight-consolidation centers, border crossing improvements, access to intermodal facilities enhancements, and strategies to provide more reliable movement within metro areas (such as truck-only facilities).

Some of the most important work we can do is to look across our borders to what some of the traffic movements are and what the impacts will be. But we will need to eventually drill down to determine what the priority areas are and to decide how we are going to address bottlenecks. We have to talk about legislative issues such as giving rail tax credits, but it has to have a national perspective, because its hard to talk in one state about fixing a bottleneck in another. Allen Biehler, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

6. Quick Investment Studies and Implementation of Congestion-Relief Projects Several states have undertaken proactive efforts to provide quick fixes to congestion bottlenecks. Whether putting in an auxiliary lane between two interchanges or upgrading traffic-signal technology to allow for coordinated intersection operations, these efforts have noticeably improved roadway performance. Additional information on the strategies adopted, the projectdevelopment process used, and the resulting benefits would be very useful to the transportation community. 7. Multimodal Transportation Corridor Investment Several states have developed transportation corridors for multimodal use, realizing that widening a roadway enough to meet future demand is unlikely. In some cases, this approach is used while freeways are being rebuilt, offering the chance to completely redesign lanes. In other cases, this approach is adopted to retrofit existing freeways to increase carrying capacity. One such example is in Minneapolis where buses can use freeway shoulders to bypass congested freeway lanes. 8. Coordinated Incident Management Incident management programs have been a mainstay of many metropolitanarea freeway management strategies for years. A lot of experience has been gained on how to limit the congestion incidents cause. It was noted at the summits that success means more than just coordinating internal organizational procedures. It includes participation of other governmental agencies, enforcement personnel, tow-truck operators, coroners offices, and media outlets. Other cities now are considering similar arrangements and want to know more cost-effective approaches for incident management.

10 Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Traffic Incident Management is the foundation of effective transportation management strategies. Ongoing training, performance measures/monitoring, and debriefing meetings are required. TIM benefits include up to a 65 percent reduction in duration of delays and a 30 to 50 percent reduction in secondary crashes. But institutional challenges are the most important barriers to successful TIM implementation. John Corbin, State Traffic Engineer, Wisconsin Department of Transportation

Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Transportation

Swift removal of traffic incidents can reduce delays by 65 percent and cut secondary crashes by half.

National Coalition to Launch Traffic Incident Management Goal

Fifteen national organizations have endorsed a National Unified Goal (NUG) for Traffic Incident Management developed by the National Traffic Incident Management Coalition, an organization including major national organizations representing traffic incident responders. The goal encourages state and local transportation and public safety agencies to adopt unified, multi-disciplinary policies, procedures, and practices that will dramatically improve the way traffic incidents are managed on U.S. roadways. The goal is organized around three major objectives:

Responder Safety; Safe, Quick Clearance; and Prompt, Reliable Incident Communications.

It promotes achievement of these objectives through 18 strategies which include development of multijurisdictional, multi-disciplinary traffic incident management (TIM) policies, procedures, and training; and development of national, multi-disciplinary recommended practices for many operational issues related to TIM. For further information, visit http://timcoalition.org

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 11

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

 9. Access Management Policies Managing access to state highways has been a responsibility of state transportation agencies for decades. However, some states are using this authority in partnership with local communities to develop long-term strategies for reducing the risk of future congestion in a corridor. This includes considering parcel-to-parcel access, frontage roads, driveway spacing standards, and no-access or access-control lines. Access management is an important strategy for corridors expected to experience significant growth. 10. Maintenance Strategies Many states note that they adopt maintenance policies aimed at reducing congestion on the roads being maintained. For example, some states have policies that only one lane at a time can be blocked for maintenance activities. Other examples were provided for snow removal, re-signing work, and routine maintenance. There is a great deal of interest in learning what other states are doing with respect to congestion-sensitive maintenance activities.

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2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

11. New Capacity Investment Many, if not most, of the strategies listed above will help reduce congestion and improve mobility. However, many summit participants state that even if implemented together, they will not provide the level of improvement needed to handle todays congestion, not to mention what is expected in the future. New capacity investment should target all modes of transportation, fix the backlog of needs that already exist, and lay the foundation for future growth. A new national commitment to transportation investment will not fall solely on the government. A partnership among federal, state, and local governments, system users, and private stakeholders is fundamental to providing future generations of Americans with the mobility and accessibility that the current generation has enjoyed from transportation investments over the past 40 years.

Photo courtesy of Florida Department of Transportation

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 13

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

 2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

chapter 2

KEY THEMES EMERGING FROM THE SUMMITS

espite their differences in size and urban/rural makeup, the states involved in the summits identified several common themes that serve as an important foundation for a national initiative on reducing congestion.

Congestion remains one of the most important issues facing the states
Based on data collected and input from citizens and officials, congestion is one of the most pressing issues facing state transportation agencies. Congestion has been mentioned in political discussions with economic competitiveness, quality of life, environmental quality, land use/growth management, and even with the perceived ability of transportation agencies to accomplish their missions. This is not an issue that is going away.

There is no single solution, but a package of strategies and initiatives that presents an opportunity for creativity
Summit participants discussed a wide range of strategies and actions being implemented throughout the nation. These strategies and actions include increasing the capacity or supply of the transportation system in the short- and long-run, as well as modifying travel demand to more efficiently utilize the capacity that currently exists. Some of the best examples of comprehensive congestion-reduction strategies include adding new capacity, especially at bottlenecks; more efficiently managing system performance through operational strategies, such as incident-management programs; and managing transportation demand through pricing strategies. Many summit participants feel that the benefits of pricing strategies have yet to be fully realized. The packaging of these different strategies at the state, metropolitan, and corridor levels creates opportunities for creatively combining different types of solutions to achieve the best overall benefit in congestion reduction. There is general agreement that although system management and pricing strategies hold great promise, physical expansion of the transportation network has to be part of any comprehensive congestion-reduction programparticularly as we look at the growth forecast in the nation over the next several decades.
Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 15
2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

The Washington State DOT Gray Notebook Benchmarks Performance

Titled Measures, Markers and Mileposts, this quarterly report provides in-depth analyses on agency and transportation system performance to citizens, legislators, and transportation organizations. It also serves as an internal management and integration tool. In the area of congestion, the report contains such information as benchmark policy goals for congestion, results of congestion relief projects, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane performance, intelligent transportation system (ITS) installations, peak travel performance, congestion-measurement principles, and many other factors. The information may be accessed on the web at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ Accountability/GrayNotebook/SubjectIndex.htm.

Performance measurement is a key to overcoming limited resources

With limited funds, many states realize that knowing where to allocate resources for the most cost-effective result is critical to their overall success. This often requires monitoring system performance in a way that identifies key areas where additional investment can have important benefits. This monitoring occurs at the programmatic level (such as Washington State DOTs utilization of its performance guide Gray Notebook: Measures, Markers and Mileposts) and at the metropolitan or corridor levels, which provides important information on where congestion bottlenecks are occurring.

Congestion bottlenecks are the focus of targeted efforts to improve system performance
Much of the transportation system performs well during most times of the day. However, due to a variety of factorsinsufficient capacity, inadequate design, poor operations, or excess demandkey components of this system become extremely congested thereby spurring delays in the rest of the network. In 2004, a study issued by the American Highway Users Alliance identified 24 bottlenecks nationwide, each of which caused 10 million hours of delay annually. These bottlenecks are well-known to transportation officials and the general public. As documented in the report, many states are aggressively pursuing strategies to reduce the delays at these bottlenecks thereby providing longer-term and more broadly-based benefits in reducing congestion network-wide. For example, as a result of improvements at the Big I interchange of Interstates I-25 and I-40 in Albuquerque, annual delays declined from 16 million hours in 1997 to 1.1 million hours in 2002.

The movement of freight over long distances and within urban areas is receiving increasing attention
Many states recognize the important role that freight movement plays in their transportation system and that poorly performing transportation systems have significant economic consequences to state and metropolitan economies. With international trade expected to reach record levels over the next 20 years, the ability of the nations transportation system to handle these flows will be stretched. The issues relating to this topic include improvement of port and inland water facilities, enhancement of access to intermodal terminals, substitution of rail service for truck movements, expansion of highway capacity to expedite truck flows through bottleneck points, creation of public/private partnerships aimed at jointly funding new projects, and environmental and community concerns with respect to the impacts associated with freight facilities and movements.
16 Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources
2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

The extent of the congestion challenge goes beyond one jurisdictions boundaries and requires collaboration with many different organizations and even other nations
Investment in the transportation system traditionally has involved coordinated actions among many different agencies. However, the extent and scope of congestion in many metropolitan areas now requires multi-jurisdictional and multi-agency strategies to ensure that reducing congestion in one location simply does not move it somewhere else. State transportation officials spoke at the summits about working closely with local communities in developing combined capital investment/operations/land-use strategies for targeted corridors. Incident-management program examples were described, such as cooperative agreements among different transportation, enforcement, health, and private towing agencies. Strategies to reduce congestion at freight facilities involve many different entities, including Mexican officials in the case of one border crossing. Summit participants agree that effective partnerships are the key element to successful and meaningful efforts at reducing congestion.

Although mobility is a key motivator for dealing with congestion, others are looming, such as global climate change, sustainability, and economic development
The transportation community has focused on congestion from the perspective of improving transportation system performance and mobility. But several transportation officials note that transportation, particularly its congestion issues, is being pointed to in other policy initiatives as a targeted opportunity for accomplishing other societal goals.
Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 17
2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

For example, many initiatives on global climate change focus on motor-vehicle emissions as one of the key factors in reducing carbon emissions. California is in the process of developing transportation strategies in response to state-adopted reduction targets for such emissions. In some ways, the global climate change targets partly are responsible for the state putting more money into the transportation system. Sustainability advocates point to the wasted energy, polluted emissions, and reduced mobility caused by increasing levels of congestion. The message from the summits is that the transportation communitys efforts to improve mobility from a transportation perspective could well be allied with other important policy initiatives that might attract more public attention.

States are taking aggressive steps to reduce congestion

Ten years ago, one would not have heard state transportation officials talking about congestion pricing. Similarly, many state officials have shied away from discussions concerning land use and urban development because these concerns were not in the mandate of their departments mission. Transit and rideshare programs were considered of secondary importance in providing notable improvements in mobility. Today, all around the country, state transportation agencies are pursuing a range of multimodal strategiescapital investment, operations, price programs, and land useaimed at reducing congestion. With the limited resources that are available, great strides are being made. However, summit participants agree that additional funding will be necessary if the nation truly wants to significantly improve the performance of the transportation system.

Photo courtesy of Michael Rosenthal, New Jersey Transit

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VDOT Programmatic Approach to Managing Congestion

Incident management
Safety Service Patrol CAD Integration Virginia Operational Information System Dynamic Message Signs Highway Advisory Radio Portable Devices Regional Incident Coordination

Congestion management
Congestion measurement Signal Optimization Demand Management -Ridesharing -Tele-work -Flextime HOV facilities Support Transit Alternatives CAD Integration Dynamic Message Signs Highway Advisory Radio Travel Time

emergency operations
VA Operational Information System Portable Devices Evacuation Planning CAD Integration Trans. Emergency Operations Center Continuity of Operations Plan Security systems

traveler Information
511 Virginia Dynamic Message Signs TrafficLand Data Sharing Agreements Private Sector Information Providers Highway Advisory Radio

Source: Virginia Department of Transportation.

Virginias Dashboard Keeps Public Well-Informed

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) takes a programmatic approach to fighting congestion, including incident management, congestion management, emergency operations, and traveler information. One element of that strategy is VDOTs Dashboard System, which provides traffic updates, as well as budget and project information. Easy access to traffic information is one of the key points in the online systema website that lets citizens get up-to-date traveler alerts, monitor the progress of agency projects, and keep an eye on the state of highway safety on Virginias 57,000 miles of roads and bridges. Launched in 2003, Dashboards traffic update service has been part of the site since 2005. By clicking on the operations dial on the sitewhich resembles a car dashboarda page comes up offering users a chance to view maps of the state by region. Each of those maps, in turn, can be navigated by incident, road closure, or traffic camera, and each location where one of those exists can be clicked to provide details or display the video from the traffic cams. We started the Dashboard service in the interests of transparencyso citizens could know how we were spending their money and whether our projects were on time, said Virginia Transportation Commissioner Dave Ekern. The operations elements are also crucial, and with this one easy-to-navigate site, we provide significant information and hold our own feet to the fire to maintain quality in all our activities, Ekern said. The site can be viewed at http://dashboard.virginiadot.org/.

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 19

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Photo courtesy of Virginia Department of Transportation

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

chapter 3

CONGESTION REDUCTION STRATEGIES FROM AROUND THE NATION

rom managing freeway lanes through variable pricing to adopting maintenance strategies that minimize traffic-flow disruption, summit participants identified a range of strategies aimed at congestion relief. The strategies generating the most interest include enhancing capacity, improving roadway management, and influencing demand.

Enhancing Capacity
Targeted Investment in Bottleneck Locations As noted earlier, several states are targeting investment in critical road-network bottlenecks. In some cases, this investment is fast-tracked to allow prompt construction of lanes, improvements to interchanges/ramps, and changes in traffic operations that result in improved traffic flow. For instance, Minnesota DOT conducted a congestion-management planning study that focused on short-term, low-cost congestion-reduction strategies. The criteria used by the department for identifying potential projects were: 1. Location had to offer a potential 50 percent reduction in congestion through project implementation, 2. Projects had to be implemented within two to three years, 3. Costs had to be less than $15 million, and 4. Safety could not be compromised by implementing the project. Overall, these projects, along with other scheduled projects, reduced congested state highway miles in the Minneapolis region from 293 miles in 2003 to 267 miles in 2006. An additional $61 million is earmarked on 10 geometric, 3 maintenance, and 6 operations projects that will continue this reduction.

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 21

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Integrated Corridor Management Strategies The capacity of a transportation corridor is defined by the ability of all facilities and modes in that corridor to handle trips. This implies that congestion-reduction strategies should not necessarily focus on one facility, but on all of the paths and services available in the corridor. The Texas DOT employs an integrated corridor management (ICM) program that does this. Different strategies are used for the needs of different types of corridors, such as arterial signal coordination, transit investment, ramp metering systems, freeway managed lanes, etc. In Houston, for example, one corridor management strategy considers toll roads, major arterial road performance, transit services, digital messaging signs, HOV monitoring technologies, and corridor and regional intelligent transportation system (ITS) capabilities. This integrated approach toward corridor capacity was instrumental in supporting effective evacuation during recent hurricanes. Critical to the success of an integrated corridor management strategy is the close collaboration among TxDOT and the multitude of stakeholders who are important participants in the corridor strategy.

Having the ability to manage a road network not only reduces congestion, but provides maximum capacity during hurricane evacuations. Amadeo Saenz, Jr., Assistant Executive Director for Engineering Operations, TxDOT

Photo courtesy of Minnesota Department of Transportation

22 Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

National Traffic Signal Report Card

The National Transportation Operations Coalition (NTOC) (a group of transportation associations interested in improving transportation operations) and the FHWA developed a traffic signal operations selfassessment tool as part of a national effort to bring more attention to the need for effective traffic signal operations. In April 2005, the National Traffic Signal Report Card, based on 378 responses from public agencies in 49 states (representing about one-third of the traffic signals in the nation) was released by the NTOC during a media event in Washington, D.C. The next Signal Report Card will be released by NTOC this fall. As a result of states conducting the self-assessment, many states made changes to their programs to improve signal operations which reduced delay, emissions, and noise pollution. In Syracuse, New York, benefits were realized when signal timing was optimized for 145 intersections. Signal retiming decreased the number of stops by 15.7 percent, reduced travel time by 16.7 percent, lowered delay by 18.8 percent, caused a 13.8 percent decline in fuel consumption, and resulted in a 13 percent reduction in vehicle emissions and noise pollution. The Texas Traffic Light Synchronization Program updated traffic signal control equipment and optimized signal timing resulting in a 23 percent reduction in delay. More information on signal control can be found on the U.S. Department of Transportation, Intelligent Transportation Systems databases at http://www.itsbenefits.its.dot.gov/its/benecost.nsf.
Source: The National Transportation Operations Coalition (NTOC) (http://www.ntoctalks.com/about_NTOC.php) and U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/).

Traffic Signal Operations Traffic signal operations are quick, low-cost methods to reduce traffic delay and are often overlooked as fundamental tools to relieve congestion. There are more than 260,000 traffic signals in the United States. It is estimated that over 75 percent of these signals could be improved by updating equipment or by simply adjusting and updating the timing plans. Poor traffic signal timing accounts for an estimated 5 to 10 percent of all traffic delay, or 295 million vehicle-hours of delay on major roadways alone. Traffic signal retiming is one of the most cost-effective ways to improve traffic flow and is one of the most basic strategies to help mitigate congestion. Optimizing traffic signals can produce benefit cost ratios as high as 40:1. Retiming traffic signals costs as little as $500 to $3,000 per intersection and can be done very quickly. System-Wide Implementation of ITS Technologies ITS technologies are implemented by many state transportation agencies in urban and rural areas. Typical applications include network surveillance, traveler information dissemination, traffic-control centers, weather monitoring and warning systems, and real-time use of traffic-management control devices. Summit participants feel that such strategies are going to be more important in the future and that ITS implementation will be more widespread. In particular, there are great expectations about the deployment of vehicle infrastructure integration (VII) strategiesadvanced vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-infrastructure communications technologies that can be used to better manage road-network performance.
Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 23
2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Multimodal Transportation Investments Providing mobility in urban areas cannot solely rely on improving the flow of automobiles. Particularly in urban areas, transit investments need to be seriously considered, often in combination with improvements to the road network. In Minneapolis and Atlanta, for example, the shoulders of major freeways are reconstructed to enable bus use. This strategy is being considered in Salt Lake City as well. Transit also is being used as part of the multimodal transportation strategy in Texas and California. In other states, managed lanes are being operated to allow transit vehicles a high-speed trip that would be very impractical in the general purpose lanes. Transit and rideshare programs need to be viewed as important components of the strategy mix for dealing with congestion in urban corridors. Capacity for Freight Movement There is a growing awareness that one of the most pressing challenges facing states in the future will be providing for the expeditious intra- and interstate movement of freight. Whereas building roads for use by cars and trucks was considered a satisfactory approach for both, the growth in truck movements and congestion on the nations rail network leads many to believe that new and innovative strategies need to be considered for expediting the flow of freight in the nation. This is especially true at ports and border crossings where freight use of the local transportation system is quite large. New freight facilities are being considered in New York and Nova Scotia to reduce the level of truck movements on the local road network. More

24 Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

efficient border crossings are being examined and built in California, Michigan, New York, and Texas. Some states, such as California, Florida, Georgia, and Maryland, are looking at truck-only lanes or facilities, usually tolled, to provide fast bypasses of congested freeways. Many states are examining policies aimed at encouraging increased freight movement by rail, thus reducing truck volumes on major access roads to ports and intermodal terminals. Summit participants strongly feel that more information is needed on the types of strategies that should be considered to expedite freight movement through their states.

Improving Roadway Management

Fast and Efficient Traffic Incident Management Traffic incident management (TIM) programs have been used in many metropolitan areas for years; therefore, many lessons have been learned on how to implement a successful program. Several speakers at the forums recommend that the National Unified Goal for Traffic Incident Management be adopted to highlight the significance of this strategy for increasing safety and reducing congestion. Included in this discussion is the importance of having state move-it/clear-it laws that remove incidents from traffic lanes as quickly as possible and the need to have clearance time performance measures incorporated into the contracts with tow truck companies. TIM programs have been found to reduce delays at incidents by up to 65 percent, to decrease secondary crashes by 30 to 50 percent, and to have measured benefit/cost ratios ranging from 2:1 to 36:1.

Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Transportation

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 25

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Tennessee Goes the SmartWay

In Tennessee, the SmartWay system utilizes HELP freeway service patrols in four major cities to help clear incidents, along with traffic cameras and overhead dynamic message boards to keep motorists informed. But incident management is not solely the responsibility of the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). In most cases, it is a multi-agency effort and the different agencies often have different responsibilities. The challenge is getting all the emergency responders to smoothly and efficiently work together while successfully accomplishing their respective tasks, says Tennessee Commissioner Gerald Nicely. To achieve this, four Incident Management Task Forces, composed of emergency responders from multiple agencies, meet twice a month at TDOT facilities in the four major urban areas. The goals of the four task forces are cooperation, coordination, and communication among the many emergency response agencies. Members of state and local law enforcement, municipal officials, city and county traffic engineers, tow truck operators, traffic reporters, and others meet with TDOT personnel to discuss best practices in incident management. The groups look at issues and challenges and offer diverse perspectives and concerns. The Task Force meetings have been so successful in the four larger cities that the state is now expanding them to other areas. For more information on incident management, visit www.tn.gov/tdot/incident/default.htm or contact Frank Horne, Director of the Office of Incident Management, at Frank.C.Horne@state.tn.us or 615.350.3306.

Some of the more important examples of successful TIM implementation illustrate the institutional strategies that are needed to overcome some of the organizational barriers that can hinder effective incident response. Several multi-state partnerships are being developed to foster improved incident management on a much wider geographic scale, such as the Interstate Highway Operations Group and the Mississippi Valley Traffic Operations Coalition. Managed Lanes One strategy viewed as having the greatest potential for more efficiently using existing capacity is implementing managed lanes on the most congested freeways in a metropolitan area. Managed lanes allow transportation agencies to control the use of freeway lanes as to vehicle use, time of usage, and location of access and egress. HOT lanes are the best example of managed lanes by using pricing to manage preferential lane use. High-occupancy vehicles can use the lane for free or at a reduced rate whereas single-driver vehicles are allowed to use the lanes for a fee, assuming that there is sufficient capacity to handle this demand. The fee varies by level of congestion in the managed lane. Managed lanes are often not easy to implement, and where such lanes have been implemented, state transportation agencies have been in leadership roles by aggressively pursuing the right mix of pricing and flow management guidelines that prove the most efficient utilization of the entire corridors capacity.

26 Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Managed lanes are definitely in the future road management program of almost every state transportation agency in the country. Peggy Catlin, Deputy Executive Director, Colorado DOT; and Executive Director, Colorado Tolling Enterprise

Colorados I-25 Tolled Express Lane Project Wildly Successful

Colorados main northsouth Interstate highway, I-25, is a gateway in Denver to and from its surrounding bedroom suburbs and to points more distant in the megalopolis that fronts the Rockies. During the 1990s, as congestion increased and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes proved Photo courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation to be helpful, but were not providing all the congestion relief needed, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) began pondering the possibility of dedicating some tolled lanes to single-occupancy vehiclesproviding speedier travel for a fee. The idea was to levy congestion tolls that would rise during the most crowded hours on the highway. So in 1999, the Colorado Legislature made it possible for CDOT to convert existing HOV lanes into highoccupancy tolled (HOT) lanes, and feasibility studies were initiated. The legislature gave further support in 2002 with an act that created the Colorado Tolling Enterprise and tasked it with financing, building, and operating a system of toll highways within the state. By 2006, a set of lanes on I-25 in one of its most congested areasa seven-mile stretch between downtown Denver and the exit for Interstate 36 to Boulderwere ready to make this idea a reality. The purpose is to maximize the highway by allowing solo drivers access to the otherwise high-occupancy lanes, said Peggy Catlin, director of the Colorado Tolling Enterprise. By thinking about the issues in a new manner, we took an asset we already had, developed it in a different way, and created an additional source of revenue without raising taxes. Instead of building out, we focused our resources inward, and built better, she said. As of July 2007, the project has proven successful beyond projections. Buses using the HOT laneswhich travel them without charge as they did when they were HOV laneshave been on time 99.7 percent of the time, demonstrating that letting single-occupant vehicles use the lanes did not hamper multi-occupant vehicles on those lanes. Tolls collectedranging from 50 cents between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. to $3.25 between 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. exceed $2.1 million, a whopping 262 percent higher than projected. In the first six months of this year, traffic through the tolled section has increased 22.5 percent, from 10,242 vehicles per day to 12,552 vehicles per day. Only single-occupant vehicles need to have toll-collection transponders to use the lanes, which otherwise continue to function as HOV lanes. There are no toll plazas; users of the segment separate into toll- or non-toll lanes to allow single-occupant vehicles to pass through the transponder recording device which automatically levies the toll.

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 27

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Photo courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation

Federal Highway Administrator Rick Capka (left) joined former Colorado Director of Transportation Tom Norton (right) for the opening of Colorados first HOT lane in 2006.

Access Management State transportation agencies have known for many years that managing access to state highways is an important strategy for reducing the number of road crashes and for maintaining the traffic-carrying capacity of the roads themselves. Many states, such as California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Massachusetts, Oregon, Texas, and Vermont, have effective access-management policies aimed at protecting the capacity of adjacent roads. Access management increasingly will become important in highgrowth corridors for protecting the state investment in state roads. Maintenance and Utility Policies with Respect to Closing Lanes State transportation officials understand that road maintenance and utility activities can disrupt the efficient flow of traffic on a roadway. Accordingly, several states have lane-closure policies that limit the amount of disruption that will be caused by this necessary activity. In Kentucky, for example, a policy has been adopted that at least two lanes must be kept open on multi-lane facilities. Expedited Construction Strategies and Extended Material Life Road construction can cause significant delays due to lane closures and the ensuing curiosity of passing motorists. The extent to which construction can be avoided (through the use of long-lasting materials) or the amount of time road disruption is reduced (through efficient construction management strategies) can significantly reduce the amount of congestion on a road network. Some summit participants point to the use of asset management principles as a way of reducing the need for major reconstruction. Fully funding asset preservation needs will result in roads and bridges lasting longer, and, as a result, not incur major construction activity as often. California estimates that good preservation and maintenance can reduce congestion by five percent over the life of a road. New construction strategies, such as prefabricated bridge sections and use of longer-lasting composite materials, can speed the process of construction and make the materials last longer.
28 Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources
2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Photo courtesy of Florida Department of Transportation

New construction techniques such as prefabricated bridge sections can reduce the length of time traffic is affected by work.

Missouri Applies Multiple Strategies

As the Missouri DOT prepared for a fouryear project reconstructing I-64 in St.Louis, one the most traveled freeways in the city, it applied every congestion management option possible to alleviate the impact on the traveling public. The New I-64 project includes:

Rebuilding or upgrading pavement,

Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Transportation

bridges, and interchanges between Spoede Road in St. Louis County and Kingshighway Boulevard in St. Louis City,  Making a new, high-quality interstate-tointerstate connection between I-64 and I-170,  Adding one lane in each direction between Spoede Road and I-170,  Increasing traffic flow through better design to eliminate short, tight entrance/ exit ramps and merges and adding dedicated exit lanes, and Enhancing safety with wider shoulders.

Missouri DOT Director Pete Rahn reported that a strategy has been adopted of completely closing segments of the freeway in order to speed the construction process and thereby reduce the overall duration of construction-related congestion. A comprehensive traffic management plan is being implemented that includes directing traffic away from the interstate with new variable message signs, contracting with MapQuest to have construction-related routes available on the Internet (to date over two million hits have been recorded at this site), restriping of other nearby interstates to add a lane, upgrading 45 intersections on detour routes, and providing improved coverage of detour routes in the areas traffic management center. A major part of this project is the outreach that is taking place to alert the public to our construction schedule so that they can develop alternative routes. We want to make this as easy as possible for the driver, and minimizing congestion is critical to that goal, said Rahn.

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 29

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Influencing Demand
Transportation Demand Management When adding capacity is infeasible, one option for maintaining reasonable levels of service is managing travel demand. Known as transportation demand management (TDM), this strategy includes encouraging non-roadway modes of travel, telecommuting, and flexible work hours. For example, the Iowa DOT made a long-term, comprehensive TDM strategy part of the reconstruction of Interstate 235 in Des Moines. The goal is to reduce travel demand by 10 percent during peak hours by the year 2020. This concept was accepted by the affected communities (Des Moines, West Des Moines, Polk County, and Windsor Heights) and the Metropolitan Planning Organization as part of the I-235 project. Transportation Management Association (TMA) was created to implement the long-range plan and to help reduce traffic on I235 during the reconstruction project. The TMA was tasked with implementation of such items as adjustable work hours (flextime), alternative routes, carpools, vanpools, and mass transit. A host of changes were made to transit service including adding routes, increasing Park and Ride services, and publicizing the Rideshare program and other special incentive programs such as company-sponsored bus passes. In Washington, D.C., ITS technologies are being used to reduce the amount of driving that motorists need to find parking by monitoring space availability and disseminating this information through digital message signs. 511 Traveler Information Service Implementation Available in 30 states, and accessible by 46 percent of the population, the goal of the 511 Deployment Coalition is to see a national traveler information system in place across America by 2010. Many summit participants identify 511 service as an important tool that can help travelers determine the best travel decision for their trips. Land Use Congestion can be consideredin some waysa measure of economic success when viewed in terms of the level of accessibility that a transportation system provides to economic activities within a state. Evidence suggests that many economic activities are attracted to areas of maximum accessibility and that those areas thrive even though they are congested. Although most states have very little influence over local landuse decisions, there are examples of state transportation agencies and local officials working together to identify the right mix of land use and transportation infrastructure necessary to maintain a viable economic environment. This includes road improvements and investment in other modes. For instance, California collaborates with local communities in the I-880 corridor to identify land-use and demandmanagement strategies that can reduce congestion today and prevent it in the future. We have a ways to go, but our goal is to become a mobility company. John Wolf, Assistant Division Chief, Division of Traffic Operations, California Department of Transportation
30 Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources
2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

= 511 Operational (Live) = Expected Live in 2008

Source: 511 Deployment Coalition, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, American Public Transportation Association, Intelligent Transportation Society of America, and U.S. Department of Transportations Federal Highway Administration.

511 currently is accessible by 46% of the population and is expected to be accessible by 65% of the population in 2008.

511 Travelers Information Service Tops 75 Million Calls

In July 2000, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a petition by the U.S. DOT and other government agencies to create a nationwide travel-information telephone number, few could have imagined that in only seven years a program without federal mandates or dedicated funding would grow to encompass more than half the states. Just after the 511 was dedicated as the nations traveler information number, the National 511 Coalition was formed to help deployers of 511. Information created and collected by the Coalition, including Implementation and Operational Guidelines for 511 Services, can be found online at www.deploy511.org. The first deployment was in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky in 2001; and with 30 states now onboard, many states and metropolitan areas are planning or operating second and third generation systems. Even with the help of fellow deployers, the process of planning, deploying, and operating a 511 system is a unique and challenging endeavor that requires a specialized set of skills and knowledge. Deployers had to answer the same questions during the design phases: What information do we have that travelers in our region need? What elements make an interactive voice response (IVR) menu tree easy to use? How do we present similar traveler information on a 511 website and, of course perhaps the most common question: How will we pay for this? It isnt surprising that each deployer has taken a different approach in designing their 511 system. The 511 Coalition has produced a variety of 511 implementation guidelines and reports, including 511 Effective Practices, to assist in the development and deployment of 511 services. These are available on their website at www.deploy511.org.

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 31

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

 2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

Summary

tate DOTs are implementing a variety of strategies aimed at reducing congestion and enhancing mobility. Many of these strategies have been used with great success for several years while others, such as pricing, only recently have been considered as part of the congestion-reduction toolbox. Perhaps most importantly, many summit participants note that efforts to reduce congestion must consist of many different strategies; there is no single action that will meet the challenge facing the nation. As such, the different strategies discussed at the congestion summits provide a worthwhile national picture of the many different types of strategies that can be part of a comprehensive and coordinated program to provide congestion relief on our nations highways.

Combatting Congestion through Leadership, Innovation, and Resources 33

2007 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. All rights reserved. Duplication is a violation of applicable law.

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) 444 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 249 Washington, DC 20001 www.transportation.org