Planning
Use Cases

Use Case:

Measure Corridor Performance

Measuring corridor performance helps agencies focus on policies, projects and programs that are performance-based, to systematically address recurring and non-recurring congestion.

Many transportation agencies have adopted Asset Management Plans to provide the strategic framework, context and guidance for infrastructure asset management and capital program decision-making.

Thus, having the ability to consistently and accurately assess system performance is critical; from understanding current system inefficiencies, to demonstrating project and program effectiveness over time.

MDOT/SHA: Annual State Highway Mobility Report

The Problem

The Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration (MDOT/SHA) focuses on performance-based policies and projects that address recurring and non-recurring congestion. But the agency needed the ability to regularly monitor the system and help drive investment-related decisions.

MDOT/SHA’S Response

Since 2012, the MDOT/SHA has published annual State Highway Mobility Reports which summarize the state’s performance measurement efforts.

These reports were conceived to describe the calendar year performance as it relates to mobility trends in Maryland and how the SHA is focusing to address various mobility challenges through strategies such as Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSM&O) and multi-modalism, as well as through a number of capital projects the SHA has accomplished in the past year.

Summarize the Data

MDOT/SHA used Massive Data Downloader to collect raw archived probe data — speed, historic average speed, reference speed and travel time — for offline analysis and to create custom charts, maps and graphs for the report.
Bottleneck Ranking was used to develop the Top 10 bottleneck locations for each of the major corridors, to ascertain overall impacts, understand bottleneck aspects (max length, daily duration, total duration), hours of greatest impacts, etc. for helping to develop projects that align with key mobility and economic objectives.
Major Corridor Performance Summary Reports: These reports provide an easy-to-read and understand one-pager that present corridor travel time trends, speed profiles, daily variability (for each day of the year) and the top bottlenecks that occurred.

The Benefits

MDOT realized these benefits in using RITIS/PDA Suite tools for their State Highway Mobility Report:

Identifies key mobility trends at varying geographic levels
Clearly shows roadway performance on a map to help identify problem areas in need of mitigation
Lists the top 10 bottlenecks for each major corridor for potential, prioritized capital project development
Promotes a more cost-effective funding program by ensuring projects and programs have hard data underpinning
Easy-to-understand measures can be shared with a number of audiences — senior leadership, legislators and the general public
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