R&T Portfolio: Transportation Systems Management and Operations
The Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) research in Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) focuses on reducing recurring congestion generated when highways do not have enough capacity to meet travel demand. Recurring congestion can be lessened by regulating travel demand through means such as congestion pricing or by regulating access to the roadway with ramp meters or adjustable speed limits.
Program Objectives:
- Develop, test, and provide tools to decisionmakers that enable more effective and sustained TSMO actions.
- Provide appropriate data and analysis tools for agencies to assess the performance of their transportation systems.
- Increase the use of travel time reliability as a measure of operational performance measurement and decisionmaking.
- Provide resources and technical support for agencies to apply state-of-the-art operations strategies.
Funding limitations and space constraints for highway expansion make it critical that transportation agencies have a strong foundation of TSMO capabilities to get the most out of current capacity. The Foundation for Successful Operations program element provides tools and organizational support to enable agencies to evaluate, plan, fund, design, and deploy innovative operational strategies.
Spotlight Project: Creating an Effective Program to Advance Transportation System Management and Operations: Primer
The primer raises awareness of the opportunities for improving the effectiveness of State and local TSMO activities. The primer provides guidance focused on key program, process, and organizational capabilities essential to the development of more effective TSMO strategy applications.
Image source: USDOT.
The Data-Driven Operations Decisionmaking program element focuses on using data, modeling, and simulation tools to evaluate the impact of operations strategies, including developing or adopting new tools and procedures to improve analytical accuracy.
Spotlight Project: Organizing for TSMO—Performance Measurement Case Studies
Given the various stages of TSMO adoption and advancement, FHWA identified the need for case studies to provide examples for transportation agencies to learn from each other. The case study focuses on advanced performance measures to supporting TSMO activities, drawing on three agencies’ experiences.
Image source: FHWA.
The United States has invested billions of dollars building our existing transportation infrastructure, which must be operated well to maximize the return on investment. FHWA is exploring innovative, readily available operational strategies and technologies to increase the efficiency of existing transportation assets.
Spotlight Project: PlanWorks—Operations and the Decision Guide
Each of the four transportation decisionmaking phases provides opportunities to educate and engage partners and stakeholders about TSMO strategies. The Decision Guide describes when and how to consider TSMO approaches, including questions to consider, data, relationships to other topics, and examples from current practice.
Image source: FHWA.
Contact Us
Office of Operations Research and Development
U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
6300 Georgetown Pike
McLean, VA 22101
United States
Office of Operations
U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20590
United States
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Last updated: Thursday, June 9, 2022