Developing and Implementing Statewide Operations Performance Measures in the State of Oregon : Methodology and Application for Using HERS-ST and Archived Real-time Data

Many state or regional transportation agencies have an interest in implementing operations performance measures. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) recently sponsored research performed by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) to identify performance measures that are sensitive to operational treatments and to test a methodology for quantifying these measures statewide. Operations performance measures will help ODOT in the identification of transportation needs related to operations programs and to evaluate benefits of operations programs. The methodology, which uses Highway Economic Requirements System—State Version (HERS-ST) and archived real-time data (when available), was successfully tested on several corridors. It provides the flexibility of incorporating different operational treatments that reduce travel delay. It also allows for adjusting the delay reduction percentages for a given operational treatment to reflect local conditions if studies are available for a specific corridor(s). This paper describes the work performed by TTI and ODOT to develop the measures, test the methodology on case study corridors and suggest additional analysis and data enhancements to improve the methods prior to statewide implementation. This research effort identified numerous data elements that could be further analyzed with sensitivity analysis, inventoried, calibrated, and/or quality controlled to fine-tune the methodology output. Updates to HERS-ST that would enhance the methodology are also discussed. The experiences documented in this research will prove valuable to any state DOT or regional transportation agency that is investigating statewide or regional implementation of operations performance measures. In particular, the research identifies issues with typical traffic data sources and what may be necessary to update them for use in a statewide methodology such as the one presented here. Necessary sensitivity analyses are also identified. Eisele, Lomax, Gregor, Arnold 3 INTRODUCTION AND PROJECT OBJECTIVES Many state or regional transportation agencies have an interest in implementing operations performance measures. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) recently began an effort to develop a set of statewide operations performance measures and a methodology to implement the measures. Operations performance measures will help ODOT in the identification of transportation needs related to operations programs and to evaluate benefits of operations programs. The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) assisted in developing the measures and methodology, which is described in this paper. ODOT assembled a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) made up of individuals from ODOT sections of traffic management, transportation planning and analysis, transportation data, traffic operations, and internal audit/performance measures. The TAC also included individuals from the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) in Portland (Metro) and the Eugene/Springfield area (Lane Council of Governments), academia, and the local Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) office. The TAC provided valuable comment and direction to the effort as there was representation from all areas within ODOT as well as transportation agencies external to ODOT—all agencies that have a high interest in operations performance measures and methods to estimate them. The project had three goals: 1. To identify a small set of mobility performance measures that serve the needs of operations performance measures. 2. To develop, test and document methods for implementing these measures at a system and corridor level so that ODOT staff are able to fully implement the measures and methodology statewide. 3. To make recommendations for future improvements to data gathering and measures estimation to improve the measures’ accuracy, geographic precision, and sensitivity to operations programs. The implementation of the measures and methodology will allow ODOT decision-makers to compare operations program benefits with other programs (e.g. safety, bridge, maintenance). The project provides the operations program with a process for estimating benefits, and this will help the program to identify places for additional study and investment. Finally, these methods will help define the return on operational investments. TTI developed a spreadsheet of computations for each test corridor to illustrate the application of the methodology and performance measure estimation. This paper describes the work performed by TTI and ODOT to develop the measures, test the methodology on case study corridors and suggest additional analysis and data enhancements to improve the methods prior to statewide implementation. The experiences documented in this research will prove valuable to any state DOT or regional transportation agency that is investigating statewide or region-wide implementation of operations performance measures. In particular, the research identifies issues with typical traffic data sources and what may be necessary to update them for use in a methodology such as the one presented here. DEFINITION OF OPERATIONS PERFORMANCE MEASURES The TAC had five desired criteria for the operations performance measures selected for the study. These criteria are as follows: 1. They should address state transportation policies such as the 1999 Oregon Highway Plan. The Oregon Highway Plan defines policies and investment strategies for the state highway system for the next 20 years (1). 2. They should be applicable to urban and rural settings. 3. They should be applicable at the transportation system level or a transportation corridor level. 4. They should allow ODOT to identify the location and relative magnitude of problems, the affects on travelers, and the effects of proposed operations programs. 5. They should be calculable using existing data and should be improvable incrementally with improving data collection efforts and calculation methods. Eisele, Lomax, Gregor, Arnold 4