01044609

Component

New software to rank all proposed highway projects in a transportation plan based on gridlock relief has been developed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), Northern Virginia District. The model uses the local metropolitan planning organization (MPO) future networks and future trip tables to process the data. It develops thousands of alternative highway networks using various combinations of planned highway improvements and then calculates the amount of gridlock relief for each improvement to develop the best sequence for constructing the plan to achieve the most gridlock relief per cost possible as improvement funds become available. The advantage of ranking all improvement projects with a computer model is to make sure limited resources are used to add capacity when and where it is most effective. Project A and Project B might both be excellent improvements by themselves in 2010, but if Project B goes first, then Project A may not reduce congestion any further on the regional system until post 2030. This model and the TTI model that is famous for ranking the Washington region as the third most congested area in the country produce similar results for this region. The model is debugged and has been used in production to rank 52 elements as potential candidates for a future Six Year Plan for Northern Virginia. To do this, the model ran for six days non-stop on a PC with Intel 3.06 GHz processor and 1.5 GB of RAM. The final output, after evaluating each improvement independently and in combination with other improvements, was a ranking of all the improvements to reduce the most gridlock in the 2010 time period. This was used to aid decision makers in developing the next Six Year Plan. Gridlock relief is measured in two ways by the model: vehicle miles of travel gridlock reductions per cost; and vehicle hours of delay reductions per cost. Gridlock relief is only measured if the Level of Service (LOS) passes a threshold, which is user specified, like LOS D, E or F. The model currently does not compare benefits across modes. It assumes planned transit improvements are in place for any forecast year highway ranking analysis. Transit networks may be incorporated in future versions of the model.

01044603

English

6p

2006

10th National Conference on Transportation Planning for Small and Medium-Sized Communities

CD-ROM

Tables (2)

Decision making; Improvements; Level of service; Software; Strategic planning; Traffic congestion; Traffic mitigation

Highway projects

Northern Virginia

Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

TRIS, TRB

Mar 23 2007 12:08PM

• 1995-2004 CARTS Pedestrian/Bicyclist Crash Analysis
• A Pavement Management System for County Roads in the State of Alabama
• Application of an Internet-Based Travel Survey in a Medium-Sized Community
• Applying Value Methodology to Metropolitan Transportation Planning
• Better, Stronger Faster; How Oblique Aerial Imagery Is Changing the Face of Transportation Planning
• Bozeman Bicycle Network Plan
• Comparison and Evaluation of Simplified Transportation Project Selection and Prioritization Methodologies for Use by Small and Medium Sized Planning Agencies
• Design Considerations to Mitigate Non-Response in Regional Household Travel Surveys
• Developing a Consistent, Flexible, and Defensible Methodology for State and Regional Transportation Planning
• Development of Travel Demand Modeling Tools for Small Area Planning Purposes
• Discrete Event Simulation of Forecasted Non-Urban Freight Movement
• Evaluating the Relative Safety of Access Management Treatments in Micro-Simulation
• Getting Innovative Traffic Forecasting Model Networks "In Shape" Quickly Using GIS Datasets
• Implementation of a Public Transportation System in Casper, Wyoming
• Importance of Modeling Ozone Formation Attributable to Rural Interstate Traffic
• Innovative Financing at the Local Level: Project Funding for a Regional Transportation Agency
• Integrating Access Management into Local Transportation Planning
• La Entrada al Pacifico: Viability and Potential Impacts on the Odessa-Midland, Texas Area and Other Small Communities
• Local Road Safety Audits: A New Approach to an Old Problem
• Microsimulation for Transportation Planning for Small Communities
• New Approach for Updating Highway Functional Classifications
• PlanCheyenne - Co-Planning for MPOs
• Planning Analysis Toolbox for Small Urban Areas in North Carolina
• Potential Use of GPS Data for Calibrating Travel Demand Models
• Safe Routes to School in Superior, WI and Duluth, MN
• Safety Conscious Planning for Small and Medium Size Urban Areas
• Six Hints for Better Public Process
• Strategic Transportation, Environmental Planning Process for Urbanizing Places (STEP UP)
• Successful Use of Public Involvement Tools - Johns Pass Bridge Project
• Supporting Transportation Planning in Small MPOs Through Partnerships and Innovative Methods
• The Bridge Between NEPA and Corridor Studies: The Story of Northern Bridge Corridor Study
• US-280 Access Management - Managing Small Town Economics
• Using Simplified Regression Analysis in Financial Planning for an MTP, or Seeing the Forest for the Trees
• Web-Based Delivery of Geospatial and Transportation Data for a Rural Intelligent Transportation Systems Project
• When Big Projects Come to Smaller Places: The Communication Challenge
• Which Came First? The SR 386 Area Study