Relationships Between Asset Management and Travel Demand: Findings and Recommendations from Four State DOT Site Visits

2007PDFTech Reporthttps://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/asstmgmt/vmt.pdfhttps://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/asstmgmt/vmt.cfmFHWA-IF-07-016Asset managementCooperationInteragency coordinationTransportation--PlanningUnited StatesUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationBooz, Allen & HamiltonUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Asset ManagementFederal Highway AdministrationFor more than 80 years, growth in highway travel in the United States has exceeded the growth of the public roadway network. Over time, this divergence has resulted in increasing traffic congestion, travel time delays, and infrastructure deterioration, which have in turn generated a range of responses by both providers and users of the nation's highways (e.g., capacity expansions, new construction materials, and both spatial and temporal changes in travel demand). Despite these efforts, the nation's motorists and the trucking industry continue to experience ongoing reductions in roadway performance, increasing travel times, and lost productivity. In response, state highway departments (departments of transportation), county governments, and local agencies continually seek new ways to address ongoing growth in highway travel demand. Over the past decade, state highway departments have also been adopting transportation assessment management (TAM) practices. TAM represents a long-term, strategic approach to the management of transportation infrastructure. A key TAM objective is the optimal allocation of limited resources to competing uses--including system preservation and capacity improvement--with the objective of maximizing transportation system performance (e.g., as measured by mobility, reliability, and safety). TAM helps to attain performance goals through the establishment of clear organizational objectives, performance measures, quality information sources, effective business processes, and robust decision-making tools.79