Abstract [ - ]
The USDOT May 2006 white paper, National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America’s Transportation Network, calls for the consideration of new, non-traditional solutions to the problem of congestion. This paper outlines a broad course of action for urban surface transportation operations that aligns with the six-point action plan identified by USDOT. Although a significant departure from current operational practices, this course of action represents an opportunity to squarely address and solve the root causes of the interlinked congestion-mobility-productivity problem rather than to simply mitigate or reduce congestion.  Key to this approach is the measurement of travel reliability, and to make this measurement the foundation for financial transactions between transportation system user and transportation system operator.

This proposed course of action centers around the guarantee of reliable travel to road users in exchange for user fees collected through ubiquitous, system-wide congestion pricing on all high-capacity facilities.  This implies a money-back guarantee for reliable and speedy travel for transportation system users paying variably priced user fees.  The revenue stream generated from these fees would be dedicated to improved transportation operations, and the involvement of the private sector to build and maintain tolling infrastructure. Such an approach places the correct focus on the accurate measurement of individual road user performance, and the characterization of system performance based on the delivery of reliable, predictable person-trips, rather than other, less relevant measures of congestion measures traditionally used by roadway system operators.

Abstract [ - ]
The Federal Lands Highway (FLH) Division staff faces myriad challenges when designing roadway construction projects for roads located on Federal lands. An increasingly prevalent challenge is taking into account not only the “hard” costs of a construction project (e.g. labor and materials) but the so-called “soft costs” of user delay and economic costs associated with construction borne by roadway users such as residents, visitors, staff and local businesses. These "soft costs" impact every roadway construction project, but are rarely taken into account in its design and operation because they are often difficult to estimate and justify. The 1998 Federal Highway Administration report “Meeting the Customer’s Needs for Mobility and Safety During Construction and Maintenance Operations” identified this issue and recommended that engineers begin to address this not only with large-scale projects, but smaller projects as well.

As part of its responsibility to promote the development and deployment of applied research, FLH staff initiated the development of FLH-QuickZone to assist in the estimation of the “soft costs” of roadway construction. As part of the FLH-QuickZone development, the tool was tested and prototyped in six different FLH construction projects—three in National Parks, two on Forest Service Highways and one in a National Recreation Area. This paper provides a summary of how FLH-QuickZone fits within a spectrum of other work zone delay estimation tools and how FLH-QuickZone was used in the six FLH roadway construction projects. The paper concludes with observations on the challenge of addressing the “soft cost” of roadway construction projects, both through the use of FLH-QuickZone or with other analytical tools.

Abstract [ - ]
This paper presents an approach for quantifying stress-inducing events for a commuter, which was demonstrated through a case study conducted for the Washington, DC, metropolitan area using an analytical technique called the Heuristic On-line Web-Linked Arrival Time Estimation (HOWLATE).  Commute stress was defined as having pre-trip, en route and post trip components based on the assumption that a commuter’s stress is affected by his expectation of the trip prior to trip start, the en route trip experience, and the actual outcome of the trip.  Three types of habitual commuters were modeled: the non user, who did not use any traveler information, and two types of traveler information users, including the radio listener, who listened to commercial broadcast traffic advisories, and the ATIS user, who made use of a notification-based service that provided route-specific travel time estimates.  Our analysis showed that compared to non users, traveler information users had fewer commute stress-inducing events and higher mobility benefits.  Instances when traveler information users felt they were running behind schedule at intermediate waypoints on a trip reduced by more than a third.  They modified their trip start times or took alternate routes on more than 65% of the trips.  This may have resulted in an increase in their stress due to changes to the regular commute behavior, but are more informed and therefore, confident of the potential trip outcome than a non user.  Non users had more than twice the number of late or early arrivals than the other two commuters.

Abstract [ - ]
In the world of mathematical modeling, conventional project management wisdom doesn’t always work. A project with state-of-the-art tools, a knowledgeable team, and committed leadership can still fail for one simple reason: the model that the team built right is not the right model—it’s aimed squarely at the wrong target. This is not an easy situation to anticipate. The manager sees tool development advancing by all accepted metrics. Tool construction is on time and within budget and following all the requirements that everyone agreed to at the project’s start. During testing, model validation produces consistent and accurate output. It’s hard to see what could go wrong.

The trap, thus subtly laid, is revealed only when those attempting to use the model notice that its outputs are merely tangential to the issue at hand or that its inputs and outputs are too arcane to be practical. The trap is particularly dangerous when the model ends up providing biased answers that are optimal to the model builder, but not to key decision makers.