Measuring and Reporting Travel Time Reliability Statistics for the Most Congested Corridors in the United States: Methodology and Results
For nearly 30 years, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) has developed methodologies and appropriate performance measures for estimating congestion performance and communicating them to technical and non-technical audiences. TTI’s Urban Mobility Report (UMR) informs decision-making at the federal, state, and local levels. While very important for guiding policy discussion and assisting resource allocations to infrastructure, the congestion statistics in the UMR only tell part of the congestion story – the magnitude of the problem based on areawide average congestion levels. The reality is that congestion is not just an “average” problem. Reliability performance measures capture an important aspect of the travel experience, and they illustrate the variability in traffic congestion so that travelers can estimate the extra “buffer” time needed to ensure on-time arrival. The transportation profession is moving toward the use and application of travel reliability performance measures for project prioritization and decision-making. However, the practice of using reliability measures for decision-making is in its relative infancy. This paper describes the methodology and analytical procedures for computing and ranking corridors throughout the United States with reliability measures. The results are documented in TTI’s inaugural 2011 Congested Corridors Report (CCR). In this paper, researchers describe the methodology and reliability measures presented in the inaugural CCR. The results of the CCR identify the 328 most unreliable roadway corridors as ranked by the buffer index. The performance measures and detailed data like those used in the 2011 CCR can guide investments and improve decisions and communication about the congestion problem.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABC30 Performance Measurement.
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Corporate Authors:
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001 -
Authors:
- Eisele, William L
- Schrank, David L
- Schuman, Rick
- Lomax, Timothy J
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
- Date: 2013
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 24p
- Monograph Title: TRB 92nd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Freeways; Performance measurement; Reliability (Statistics); Traffic congestion; Traffic measurement; Transportation corridors; Travel time
- Geographic Terms: United States
- Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01475371
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 13-1338
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Mar 14 2013 12:45PM