Q. Robert Fijol: What method did you use to determine congestion levels?
Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: For the developing of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan we used different indicators. One of them was the one I used for the presentation today. That is the V/C or Volume to Capacity. The threshold for these maps that I displayed include capacity, over capacity, and severely congested. The breakdown was more or less like this. Acceptable was from zero to .89. Approaching capacity was defined as .9 to .99. Overcapacity 1.0 to 1.09. And severely congested was 1.1. Now we also look at other indicators in developing the MTP that will help us to get a better understand like the traditional VMT. Also we look at time delay, with stop delay, and we use one of our tools in addition to the travel forecasting model what we call the transportation accessibility model. That helps us to evaluate different levels of mobility and accessibility in the transportation system by mode of transportation. So with the use of TRAM (Transportation Accessibility Model we are able to assess accessibility and mobility facility type and we're able to build contours, travel time contours and relate that to, for example, origin and destination of how some specific corridors perform and allow the user to move further out from isolated location that is the starting point.
Q. Robert Fijol: Do you base all of your analysis on travel mode? Do you use any real time data, travel time surveys, ITS? If so explain.
A. Robert Fijol: Either Rodolfo or Dan do you want to answer that?
Dan Blevins: Yeah, I'll go ahead. I try to avoid the model. Just that's something that when we were developing it everything we have is, I wouldn't say necessarily about real time data, but it's at least from that current year. For instance our travel time data that we collect we do that either late September into early October. It's pretty much a standard time to collect that. We do that every year. We do it during the morning, AM and PM peak hours, and each roadway gets ran at least three times on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Our V/C ratios are collected through a variety of sources, but we pretty much stay away from the model as much as we can. That's something that seems to always to be changing and in our area we have-- we have enough areas that are failing now that we don't have to really look into the future to find other areas at this point. So we were able to use, I'd say, current information, the real time data about looking through traffic cameras and things such as that. Maybe it isn't there to have as a good standardized format, but we stay away from the model.
Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: In our case we're using observed data from our traffic count program that basically we work in a three year cycle. And we try to count as much as we can from the transportation system by functional class. In addition to that, in recent times, we start doing travel time surveys using the GPS unit running through-- emphasizing the peak periods, so the morning, the afternoon, and the midday in between. So we have those two sources, but sometimes we make use of our model also to determine how the system performance is, especially when we are analyzing the future scenarios.
Q. Robert Fijol: What does it mean to be fully integrated into the planning process?
A. Robert Fijol: I think from Federal Highway's point of view certainly when we're using the CMP to program funds, I think, is a big part if it and getting the operating folks involved, but if Dan and Rodolfo if you want to elaborate on that what that means to you guys?
Dan Blevins: Sure. A little bit of a gray area there. I mean, I think it depends on your region's size. Certainly larger MPOs versus smaller ones may have greater difficulty in that, but I'd say if you're able to have a good data collection - being able to have a good method to identify your congested areas - come up with some good methods on how to mitigate that, and then having some way being prioritized or a list is generated that is given to the DOTs for consideration. It's pretty much into the planning process, that's really a short and sweet way to do it, but, I think areas are going to vary.
Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: I would have to — Dan just mentioned that to us it's going to be very important the acceptance of the products from the CMP. You know that we collect information, that we do a sound analysis using that information. But also that the region, the member agencies, and the planning partners will recognize the relevance of the CMP program, and then those products, and that information that is generated from the CMP is integrated in the planning, and programming and the decision making process. So how resources are allocated, how the problems have been identified, and so on. So it is a tenuous issue or subject because it depends on the circumstances of each location, MPO, or the state, but also I think for us our common factor is how recognized the value of the CMP is into the transportation planning process.
Robert Fijol: Okay, great. I think that we really don't want that to sit on the shelf like so many of the CMSs we have in the past.
Q. Robert Fijol: The next question. Do you generate a separate CMP document, and is it required? If so what is the frequency? Dan or Rodolfo?
A. Dan Blevins: We pretty much do one every year. I think from most of the meetings I've gone to nationwide it seems like most people either do it in tandem with their long range plan, or produce one the year that your long range plan is going out. So it was three years, and now it's four years. I went to a FHWA kind of a national peer exchange meeting and I asked the question, I said, "How many people do their CMP annually?" I was the only fool that raised his hand, so I would say the general consensus is most people do it either every three or four years based on their long range plan cycle, but we're crazy enough to do it annually.
Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: In our case we started early in doing kind of a comprehensive extended CMP document that we call Local Motion, and you can access the document in our web site, but then it started decreasing, and for different reasons we were not able to produce that in a consistent way. I think one of our goals right now if we do it right and the CMP document as a product is recognized and used by our member agencies, not for the regional programming, but also for the local transportation planning then that kind of report is going to be important to see how the system performs in a specific area. Something following the example of what Dan was making reference, so how then the local governments use that to negotiate with developers, or make their own decisions. I think having a product like that will help them.
Q. Robert Fijol: As a condition of our last MPO certification review we were asked to 1) develop a process to evaluate the causes of congestion, and 2) a process to evaluate the effectiveness of implemented strategies and actions.
A. Robert Fijol: That's the question, if someone wants to talk about maybe a strategy to attack those two certification review findings.
Dan Blevins: Yeah. I can go ahead. I'd say that's probably the hardest thing to do when it comes to CMPs is to develop a process to evaluate the causes. That's kind of where once we identified the corridors at a broad range, when you start looking at them a little bit more closely you can — what is the cause. Recurring and non-recurring pretty much separate themselves, so one thing when you're doing your CMP and you're finding your peak hour problems and your V/C ratios, you're pretty much finding the areas of - what is the cause. Well, it's a causing everyday. We're going to be actually adding crash data to our CMP this year upcoming, so we'll actually have that little bit of the non recurring congestion. And I think pretty much the standard that you see - 60 percent being recurring, and then another 25 percent being accidents, and this, that and the other. I think they pretty much kind of speak for themselves. Now for the second one about the process to evaluate the effectiveness, that's tough. I think we need the annual data collection, the annual data sources, so you can 1) develop several years worth of data that you're able to say go back and say, well, this project was finished in 2003 what has happened since then? We're in the infancy of really trying to develop that going back and looking at significant projects and actually multiple projects along corridors to identify that. When you have one or two projects that are within a couple miles of each other, well, which one made the biggest impact? It gets a little bit difficult to pick up. We are looking at releasing something, probably in the fall, that starts to look at some of our major corridors, and then having the listing of some of the projects that were done in it, and then looking at the past conditions and what it is now whether there was any improvement along this corridor. We've had a couple where you can see where there wasn't capacity additions, and the travel times and the V/C ratios are still good through there. And then there's been some where we've added capacity, well, it's still slow, because the travel time data's showing that it didn't really make much of a difference. So there are ways to do it, and I'd say that's probably where one of our weakest points is, is trying to figure out exactly how to measure that.
Q. Robert Fijol: I've seen that some MPOs only use a subset of the roads in a region in their CMP rather than all federal aide roads. Is this allowed? I assume that all roads should be included, but it makes it more difficult for some of the larger MPOs.
A. Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: Well, let me try to tackle this. I think it's a question of resources also because depending on how much resources you are able to use to monitor the transportation system, resources related to the ITS technology resources in terms of carrying out traffic counts, or doing travel time survey. So that is something related to that. The other thing is it depends on the definition of regionally significant. What are the top areas or facilities that are showing serious problems that then you have to prioritize, and start from there. The interstate system in our case, or principal arterials - where are they? I think that it's going to be very difficult for MPOs because they are big and the transportation system is so massive, but for the small MPOs that the transportation system perhaps is not as massive, but the resources are more limited, and the capacity to really monitor every single segment or facility is more cumbersome. The other portion also is that the CMP is intended to be a multi-model approach to evaluate how the transportation system performs, so we have to have priorities. It's not just about monitoring existing, or implemented strategies, or strategies that are going to be implemented related to the roadway. It's also to evaluate what kind of other alternative can help to mitigate the roadway problem or the congestion problems in the roadway. So to me it is a composition of many different aspects.
Q. Robert Fijol: What CMP performance measures have you developed, and why did you select them in particular?
A. Robert Fijol: I don't know, Rodolfo, if you want to refer to that document you have here, the Cambridge Systematics document? Do you want to tell where you got this?
Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: Yes. The Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration prepared a document, and the document was prepared by Cambridge Systematics for these Federal Agencies, the FHWA and the FTA. The document is titled, "A Guidebook on the Congestion Management Process in Metropolitan Transportation Planning. Objective driven, performance based management of congestion in the metropolitan transportation system." This is a very – I found it very helpful to understand the differences between the CMS, how it was called early, ISTEA and TEA21, and what is intent behind the SAFETEA-LU regulation, and the final rule from the federal regulation on the statewide Metropolitan Transportation Planning. It provides, in a very didactical way with a lot of graphics. I am a person who needs a lot of graphics to understand things, and in establishing the difference and the connections between the long term transportation planning, and management, and operations, and how to accommodate that into the developing of goals and objectives. Also the document suggests a different performance measure depending on the area. So it's a very, very nice document, very nice layout, and I encourage you to look into this document, and I think it's in the FSWA web site.
Robert Fijol: Okay, www.camsys.com, you can check for it there, and it should be posted soon. Dan did you want to add anything to that?
Daniel Blevins: No. I think he pretty much covered it. That document has a good list of performance measures, and I'd say, why we selected ours. Obviously volume to capacity ratio is pretty much your standard. We have the intersection data. We just have a good collection of system for that along with our county when there's a land use plan they require a transportation impact study along those that gives a lot of good current data. And we're fortunate to have the-- for the travel time data we are fortunate to have the University of Delaware. They have a transportation center here which, we contract out with them in coordination with DelDOT because DelDOT does Kent and Sussex so we kind of help take care of financially for New Castle County. Just what we're able to get on an annual basis is how we selected the ones that we did, I guess, is the easiest way to say it. I mean a census is good for some things, but obviously for performance measurement you're just not going to get good annual data down to a good detail, so it's a matter of what you can get on an annual basis.
Q. Robert Fijol: What tools or processes do you use to more closely analyze corridors that require it, micro or mezo simulation models?
A. Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: Well, we don't use micro or mezo simulation models. What we are relying right now for our analysis in more detail in the corridor area is travel time. That is our intent to use extensively travel time survey.
Q. Robert Fijol: Does or will the MPO collect all the necessary data to feed the CMP performance measures?
A. Daniel Blevins: Yes, there's enough to – there's a good question about can you feed the performance measures. It all kind of goes back to looking at your system, what you're defining as your system, and then looking at it about – can you maintain that. It's lovely to be able to count everything all the way down to your major collectors or minor collectors and do this big huge comprehensive system, but you run the risk of it collapsing under your own weight if you're not able to financially or manpower wise maintain that. So that's where we made our break with our-- using the arterials and above. It's only 25 percent of our network, but it's something that we're able to maintain year after year. And actually we've had a little bit of a kind of snowballing effect once people have seen the value of the CMS. Getting back to Rodolfo's buy in comment about the CMP is, it helps when you go to council for your UPWP saying, "We're taking this much money to do this much data collection." They understand and they don't really argue as much as they would in the past. So yes, you need to collect all – we do collect what we need to, to feed it based on making sure that we have an attainable goal. We have a small enough area that we're able to collect the data.
Q. Robert Fijol: What agencies are involved in your CMP committee?
A. Daniel Blevins: I think I touched on that, but certainly we have our two county two state MPOs so we have members of both the Department of Transportation. We also have DART, or, Delaware Transit Corporation. We have both members of the county land use departments. As you saw it plays a big part in this particularly when you look at the mitigation measures. Because if you're looking at access management, or combining entrances on developments or shopping centers, that really is a land use function because your making the developer - make changes, and that'll be impacting them as well. We also have some of our surrounding MPOs, Zeo Neaderland from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission she is on our subcommittee as well, so we're sharing regional information back and forth. And we had a member of our public advisory committee who's part of that. He helps us out an awful lot because in order for this information to get out to non-planners and non-technical folks we need to be structuring it visually in a way that they can understand that, so he kind of can look at it and say, "This makes no sense to me." Therefore, somebody else who really doesn't know much about - the planning process it helps it – they're able to help us kind of smooth things out a little bit. So that pretty much is a summary of the people who are on our committee. We do have other municipal members as well. They are some of our larger cities.
A. Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: Yes, the composition of the subcommittee in the Albuquerque area right now includes engineers from the Public Works Departments of the major member agencies. Include also the New Mexico Department of Transportation, the Director of the Planning Department of the city, which is the major stakeholder in which most of the developing happens. We have the major transit provider too. Some of them also carry, or wear different hats, so some of them also are members of our ITS subcommittee so we bring that perspective in terms of the operation. And also some of them are also sitting in the Transportation Coordinating Committee which is our Transportation Advisory Committee to the Policy Board. So there is a mix in representing different scales of municipalities as well as the different fields.
Q. Robert Fijol: What was the most significant lesson learned from Wilmington?
A. Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: Well, we learned many different things, so it's very difficult singling out one. But to me was to see the day to day operation, how they define and structure all the different elements, how those elements relate to each other, and how the region makes use of the products that are coming from that program. The other learning theme to me, perhaps, is to reach to the level of WILMAPCO it takes time, and that is something that Dan tried to emphasize to me. Look, you are looking at all of this, and it looks very nice and impressive, and they feel very proud, but it took time, and that is something that sometimes we don't take into the equation. And to really develop things that are quality, and for the member agencies to embrace a quality product that in some ways include changing the ways we do things, is going to take time, and a lot of discussion, and a lot of debate. So that is something perhaps that I will say it was a reality check for us too.
Q. Robert Fijol: The volume to capacity performance measure works well for road segments. How do you intend to evaluate roadway intersections as pointed in your second to last slide?
A. Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: Well, at this point we are having that discussion, or we're scheduled to have that discussion within the subcommittee. I think that because within the MPO staff we don't have traffic engineers we are going to rely a lot in what the traffic engineers of our member agencies can help us to identify and help to carry that analysis. The other source for that will be some of the traffic studies that already have been done at the corridor level for a specific developing, or because there are specific needs, so all that knowledge and all that analysis is already there, and we need to find a way in which the outcome of that product can come an be integrated into our program.
Q. Robert Fijol: In the analysis and challenges slide would you please explain the bullet concerning the regional markets?
A. Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: Well, the regional market is basically to relay the demand and qualify the demand in relation to the supply. It is an economic concept. The supply is the transportation system that can be evaluated at the corridor level, also area level associated with activity center, or major employment center. Well, we feel like when we qualify the demand we can really determine that in a specific location maybe that facility is not performing well, but a lot of the demand is going through that particular corridor. So whatever strategy that we identify to address the performance, or the lack of performance in that particular facility need to understand that, so if in that particular location a lot of the demand is, or a good portion is from long distance trips then certain transit strategies will facilitate that. For example, commuter rail can capture a lot of the demand that is from long trips that are going through that particular location. In other cases depending of the origin and destination analysis, so depending of the distance of the trips display that is associated with the density in that particular location of the land use characteristics, I think that will help us to better understand the strategy, or the potential of these specific strategies to address the need in that particular location or corridor, and if broader, the analysis to a regional perspective and no very specific location. So we feel like the impact that we can have in suggesting or recommending a solution it would be multiplied or better addressed than otherwise.
Q. Robert Fijol: How has non-recurring congestion been measured?
A. Daniel Blevins: Up to this point our documents not at all. Based on what information we've been able to capture has always been about recurring congestion, V/C ratios and travel time. That will be changing in our next version. We've, through begging and pleading with the State DOT, we've been able to get access to the point files of basically all the crashes in the region since 2000. So what we'll be able to do is to start looking at areas that have high crash rates, high volumes of crashes, and this, that and the other, so that we're able to start identifying those areas that have high incidents of crashes which is getting to some of the non-recurring. It's kind of funny areas that have recurring, non-recurring congestion, but for crashes, but where we're having the higher frequencies and start to incorporate that in there as well-which then will be a little better at that.
A. Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: Robert, if I can expand a little bit our dreams here. We intend to do, in addition to the crash analysis like Dan mentioned, we also are intended to access information about respond time, clearing times and work back with the emergency response agencies or crew. Because in that way it can also help us to try to approximate incidents, or secondary incidents that might be occurring as a result of one event. On the other hand also will help us to really monitor over time how are we performing in managing emergency response situations, and if we have to better address coordination between the emergency response agencies and so on. So through our ITS subcommittee, and the ITS implementation plan, that kind of discussion is expected to happen, and it has been happening, but we still have a way to go.
Q. Robert Fijol: Are your performance measures [at Wilmington] in terms of daily, peak hour or peak period?
A. Daniel Blevins: Our intersection data is during traditional highway capacity the peak hour level service, and then everything else is during the peak AM and PM periods. It could be inbound and outbound traffic for the transit. The V/C ratio and the travel times are done during the peak AM and PM period.
Q. Robert Fijol: Can you discuss the tools used to generate the results for your performance measures?
A. Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: I want to let Dan to address that because he has a good system.
Daniel Blevins: Both projects are part of the regional architecture which, again, MARC maintains. There's quite a lot of us. You're hearing about the— actually the systems engineering part, I believe, was quite helpful in setting up the structure, the infrastructure, the agreements between cities. As you can imagine there's quite a lot of funding agreements, quite a lot of operations agreements that have to go through the councils before you could deploy the project. So the ITS standards we are requiring NTCIP even though it's not a fully mature standard for some of the traffic signals. It's not plug-and-play at this juncture. That's a long debate that Paul and I still—Robert Fijol and I still have, so, but we are specifying NTCIP and we're always looking for nonproprietary standard equipment. pattern. I'm assuming that's what that question means about how we generated the results.
Q. Robert Fijol: Are you using ITS technologies to collect and analyze real time operations data?
A. Rodolfo Monge-Oviedo: Let me answer that. We are working on-- different ITS technology has been deployed in the interstate system and into some of the locations in the municipalities. We still need to work close and determine if that information has been archived, and in what language, so the system will be able to communicate, and also to determine what kind of information do we really need and we like to have for the CMP purposes. That discussion is currently happening at the ITS subcommittee level. We will be scheduling a discussion in the CMP subcommittee, and perhaps a joint session in the future with both, and some of the operators of the ITS technology to see that, and how can they develop a reporting system, an archived system that is reasonable and practical to maintain over time. Because one of the things with data collection, and Dan warned us about that, is that you can start collecting, and collecting, and collecting, and that thing will become so overwhelmed and a huge monster that it is an end in itself, and we don't need to do that. I think the important thing for a data collection plan is to really identify the needs and what is really, really important to collect and adapt any program in terms of those goals and objectives.
Q. Robert Fijol: Every time you update your analysis do your CMS corridors change? If so do you monitor the trends over time?
A. Daniel Blevins: Yes, every time we do, yeah, they can and do change. So what we're looking at is kind of the worst of the worst each time we do that. Do they change a lot? No. Some areas, and what we've seen in terms of doing it year in and year out, is I kind of call it our corridor creep. From 2002, 2003, 2004 the corridors just seem to get a little longer because areas are adding. Some areas are getting a little worse, or just on the fringes of it, so the corridors are unfortunately expanding. In terms of - even if they do change our system monitoring we still monitor the trends of our entire system so that's how we're able to still capture and use that as well. And it's something that our subcommittee members were sure to point out. It's the system monitoring, yes, but we're showing you the worst corridors and we're using it for the prioritization, but when we're looking at the system over time you're looking at all the big arterials and above as part of a system to see how things are going over time. So that's how we manage that.
Q. Robert Fijol: How much do you budget for data collection and monitoring?
A. Daniel Blevins: With the travel time we're into $50 to $60 thousand for doing, I'd say, the data collection directly related to the CMS about our park and rides, the travel times, intersection counts. What it is, is a lot of that is pulled in with some other money that we have from the DOT for various projects so that kind of, I would say, kind of our share that comes out it. It may be a little bit higher. I'm looking at our UPWP as we speak, but I'd say in all told probably about $50 to $60 thousand we have directly related to the CMS.
Q. Robert Fijol: In Wilmington do you continue to monitor and report how improvement investments have reduced congestion and delay?
A. Daniel Blevins: Kind of talking about that earlier. Yes we are. We are continuing to work on how the best way to report improvements, that investments have made on reducing congestion and delay. We're hoping to have what we kind of call a little sub-report of our CMP out in the fall that is taking a crack at doing that on a corridor basis, so we are working on that, so stay tuned.
Q. Robert Fijol: How often do you, Dan, collect travel time data? How many runs, and do you include both peak hours?
A. Daniel Blevins: .Once a year usually done late September or early October, a minimum of three runs per roadways segment. Some are done four because they're a little closer, but it's a minimum of three, and they are done during the AM and PM peak hours, so we do it for both AM and PM.
Q. Robert Fijol: Should the operating community be initially involved in the CMS process?
A. Daniel Blevins: If you can get them to the table, yeah, as much as you can have them involved they can help in the solution matrix, they can help in actually in figuring out what data is good or should be used for identification. It's hard to get operators and planners together when there's not much to discuss, but if you're able to do that, go for it.
Robert Fijol: Yeah. I agree with that. Sometimes the difficulty is to bring the operators with the planners at the same time at the table. Every stakeholder that plays a key role in the transportation system needs to be at the table. Now, on the other hand, if you are not able to bring them on a regular basis to, for example, the subcommittee, the CMP subcommittee as active members, you can establish a mechanisms in which once in a while they will come to the meeting to have discussions or presentations to address a specific issue.
Q. Robert Fijol: We have one last question to provide a link to the guidebook that we mentioned earlier.
A. Robert Fijol: We tried to find it. I tried to Google it. I didn't have much success. I'll try to get a link for that. If you want to, shoot me an e-mail if you're still interested in that. My e-mail address is robert.fijol@fhwa.dot.gov. If you send me an e-mail I will try to look that up, and I'll send that out.
