Using travel time reliability data to develop congestion management strategies in the transportation planning process

The selection of different congestion management process (CMP) strategies for a specific corridor by a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is an important step in the transportation planning process. The selection of strategies and prediction of improvements using simple sketch planning methods based on travel time reliability data would be a useful tool.\ud The congestion management strategies (CMS) and travel time reliability data, which are available for many MPOs including the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), are used to select projects to address congestion problems. A model is needed that can predict travel time reliability indices changes. Two travel time reliability indices that were used in this research are the posted speed reliability index and expected travel time reliability index, which are used by SPC. The goal of this research was to develop a CMS model that can select one or several optimum strategies for a corridor. The results are then used to calculate the changes in predicted travel time reliability indices for a corridor, which can be used to indicate the expected impact of the strategies.\ud The research results provide a combined qualitative and quantitative method which could be used to select CMS projects and predict CMS improvements. This methodology will help MPOs to select CMS strategies and identify projects during transportation planning process.\u