Data- and Performance-Based Congestion Management Approach for Maryland Highways

• Published in: Transportation research record 2014-01, Vol.2420 (1), p.23-32
• Main Authors: Wolniak, Matthew J., Mahapatra, Subrat
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0361-1981; 2169-4052
• DOI: 10.3141/2420-03

Across the country, state departments of transportation face challenges because of limited budgets and increased infrastructure needs. These agencies often are required to make and defend difficult decisions on project prioritization. With the increased availability of data, more quantitative measures can be used to assist in defining the most pressing project needs to improve mobility. This paper summarizes the findings of the 2012 Maryland State Highway Mobility Report, which evaluates the roadway transportation system operations and is a tool for assessing the annual progress of the state's roadway network. With a focus on policies, programs, and projects that systematically address both the recurring and nonrecurring nature of congestion, the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) has adopted a performance-based approach to provide users with a high-quality, reliable highway system. Four key focus areas were identified: mobility and reliability, incident management and traveler information systems, multimodalism and smart growth, and freight. Performance measures included input measures, such as vehicle miles traveled, travel time index, and planning time index; output measures, such as number of incidents cleared; and various analyses, such as the annual user cost savings attributable to congestion management. In addition, major controlled access corridors were evaluated from the standpoints of congestion, reliability, and bottlenecks with a combination of vehicle probe speed data and traffic volume data. Consistent performance monitoring allowed SHA to compare and prioritize projects much more effectively.