Facilitated by Rich Taylor, Transportation
Specialist, Office of Operations, FHWA
Some ITE members took part in this operations seminar, held Sunday, March 9th, which focused on operations, performance management, performance measures
and monitoring, and MAP-21 Performance Management Requirements.
Mr. Taylor explained that FHWA focuses on improving operations to achieve the
following: reduce and manage impacts of congestion, gain more
efficient movement of passengers and freight, to improve the safety and
sustainability of the highway system, to find the more cost-effective
investment of limited resources and to promote a more proactive approach. He
also offered examples of operations strategies including traffic
incident management, managed lanes, traffic signal coordination, transit signal
priority, freight management, work zone management, special event management,
road weather management and congestion pricing.
Proactively operating
the transportation system requires real-time and
forecasted information, measuring/monitoring performance, good analytical
foundation/tools, state of the art technologies and strategies, integration
across system elements, jurisdiction, and modes and an organization and
workforce capable of managing all of the above. Mr. Taylor also clarified MAP-21 National
Goals for the Federal Aid Highway Program which included
safety, infrastructure condition, system reliability, freight movement and
economic vitality, environmental sustainability, and reduced project delivery
delays.
For more performance management and operations information, please visit http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/.