Best practices and outreach for active traffic management : final report.

Levecq, Charles; Kuhn, Beverly; Jasek, Debbie · 2011 · ROSA P / Texas Transportation Institute. University Transportation Center for Mobility

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Summary

This report addresses the challenge of managing increasing travel demand on congested freeway corridors in the United States amidst limited funding for infrastructure expansion. The research focuses on Active Traffic Management (ATM), a holistic congestion management approach widely deployed in Europe since the 1980s but still in its early stages in the U.S. ATM aims to maximize facility effectiveness, efficiency, throughput, and safety by dynamically managing traffic flow based on prevailing conditions. The study was motivated by the need to provide U.S. transportation agencies with crucial information on best practices for deploying ATM strategies, thereby enabling them to optimize existing infrastructure and improve trip reliability. The methodology involved a comprehensive literature review of international and domestic ATM strategies, including shoulder use, speed harmonization, queue warning, dynamic merge control, dynamic rerouting, and dynamic truck restrictions. The researchers compiled an inventory of ATM deployments both overseas and within the United States, supplemented by case study interviews with international and domestic agencies. Based on this data, the team developed general high-level guidelines for the successful deployment and operation of these strategies. Additionally, the project included outreach components: the development of a database-driven website to serve as a clearinghouse for ATM resources and the hosting of a webinar to disseminate findings to the transportation profession. Key findings detail the specific mechanisms and benefits of various ATM strategies. For instance, temporary shoulder use, such as Hard Shoulder Running (HSR) in England and Germany, was found to significantly increase capacity; the M42 pilot in England resulted in a 26% decrease in travel time and a 27% increase in travel time reliability, while German studies indicated a 20% capacity increase on three-lane motorways. Speed harmonization uses expert systems to automatically adjust speed limits to prevent congestion thresholds from being exceeded. Queue warning systems alert travelers to upstream queues to reduce erratic behavior and collisions. The report outlines essential elements, data needs, and potential impacts for each strategy, noting that ATM can increase average throughput, decrease primary and secondary accidents, and delay freeway breakdown. The significance of this work lies in providing U.S. state departments of transportation and partnering agencies with actionable guidance for implementing ATM. By offering a structured framework for deployment, the report supports the transition from static to dynamic traffic management, allowing agencies to address congestion with minimal geometric changes. The developed website and webinar further enhance awareness and accessibility of ATM resources. Ultimately, the report concludes that ATM offers a viable operational alternative to physical expansion, helping agencies achieve more with less by improving network performance, safety, and traveler experience through integrated, automated systems.

Key finding

Active Traffic Management strategies, such as temporary shoulder use and speed harmonization, increase roadway capacity, improve travel time reliability, and reduce congestion-related crashes without requiring geometric expansion of the facility.

Methodology

review

Provenance

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Topics

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• speed management
• perceptual countermeasures
• work zones
• signage environment

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation