Optimally Measuring and Reporting Arterial Performance Using Different Detection Networks

Arterial performance measurement is of growing interest to agencies, as they seek to quantify the return on investment for projects, provide enhanced information to travelers, and better integrate arterial operations into multi-modal network management practices. Quality performance measurement requires agencies to collect data from intelligent transportation systems (ITS) infrastructure, archive it, and compute meaningful and actionable metrics from it. This paper takes a case study approach to illustrate how an arterial performance measurement software system can programmatically compute and report consistent performance measures for different detection types, in a way that is scalable to different network sizes. It is based on deployments of Berkeley Transportation Systems, Incorporated's Arterial Performance Measurement System (A-PeMS) at three sites that differ in sensor type, sensor placement, and deployment scale. The paper also details the unique computational and visualization approaches taken to capitalize on the performance measurement potential of each site’s detection capabilities.