Using System Performance Data to Communicate Benefits of Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) Strategies

In recent decades, many agencies have embraced concepts that fall under the Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) umbrella and have deployed TSMO strategies. While most transportation professionals understand conceptual improvements provided by these strategies, agencies continue to struggle to communicate these benefits in a consistent, meaningful, and persuasive way to the varied audiences that need that information.  The availability or volume of data is not the primary issue because a significant increase in the variety and volume of data has coincided with the deployment of TSMO strategies. Not only do some TSMO strategies include systems that produce their own data, but agencies have increased access to legacy datasets within the agency along with new datasets based on mobile and other sources. With this new data, researchers have worked to store, organize, validate, combine, and analyze these new datasets to create usable information and performance measures. These efforts resulted in relatively new and useful performance measures such as those focused on freeway and arterial reliability. However, even with this increased access to data, agencies struggle to tie system performance to specific TSMO strategy deployments that may have benefits beyond spot locations and synergistic effects with other TSMO strategies, and to consistently communicate benefits of these TSMO strategies to the varied stakeholders in their areas, which range from agency leadership to regional partners, the public, and national organizations.  The objective of this research is to provide recommended practices for using data and performance measures to communicate the benefits of TSMO strategies and tactics to stakeholders at the agency, regional, and national levels and the public. This research will create guidelines for communicating the benefits of TSMO strategies to various stakeholders and will include the following components: (1) assess the current state of practice for measuring the benefits of specific TSMO strategies and tactics; (2) summarize the needs for agencies at multiple levels (local, regional, and national) and public stakeholders for understanding the benefits of TSMO strategies; (3) perform a gap analysis to determine differences in current benefits measurements and the needs of each of the stakeholders; and (4) provide recommendations for consistent communication of TSMO benefits to each stakeholder group, including measurement methods, content, and communication methods.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5501
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $400000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 08-182

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Zhao, Yi

• Start Date: 20230725
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data sharing; Performance measurement; Transportation operations; Transportation system management
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01888645
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 08-182
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Jul 25 2023 8:56AM