Commercial Operations

Highway incidents along major highways or during peak travel times can have a dramatic
impact on traffic operations in an area. To minimize delays along the highway, travelers
will often divert to other highways or streets, thereby tending to congest the alternate
highways. In most cases, the traffic signal timings along these streets will require
significant increases to phase or cycle length to adapt to the increased traffic demand. In
addition, as the impact of the incident increases, the impacts to traffic may increase to
corridor-wide or regionally. Changes in the traffic signal timing strategies for these type
events can have favorable impacts to traffic and serve as a key incident management
tactic. However, there are a variety of issues that need to be addressed to effectively
manage the impacts.

Jacobs Engineering

Iowa Department of Transportation

Presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

Widespread dissemination of traffic information is an important objective of state DOTs
and regional transportation authorities.  One very effective approach to reaching that
objective is an automated traffic TV show.  Such a show is a compelling ATIS for DOTs
because it is delivered through a superior dissemination media, is an attractive and
engaging product to the public, and has very good cost-to-benefit economics.

Tele Atlas

Missouri Department of Transportation

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas

Traffic Radio is a 24x7 traffic information service launched in England in July 2007.
This paper gives an overview of the service and the technical, political and
commercial environment in which it was launched. The distribution channels: Digital
Audio Broadcast (DAB), internet and event based temporary AM or FM broadcasts
are assessed against research of driver behaviour and other market research in order to
measure their effectiveness in reaching road users and influencing their behaviour.
Based on the first 12 months of operations, conclusions are presented that will enable
others to judge whether or not this British model for delivering traffic information to
road users is a success or failure.

Consulting Stream Limited

Presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

The implementation of transportation management plans on highway projects became a
requirement by the federal regulation in order to maximize safety and mobility at work zones.  
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) completed replacement of concrete
pavement for about 5 kilometers (total 20 lane-kilometers) on Interstate 15 in Devore,
California. The I-15 Devore II rehabilitation project was completed in six weekend closures
with around-the-clock construction in early 2007, with partial or full closures of one direction
of the freeway.  A traffic monitoring study with surveillance systems was conducted to
validate project’s transportation management plan (TMP) and to utilize the collected data for
traffic flow characteristics at the work zone and traffic demand/capacity changes on highly
trafficked urban highway projects.  The study showed that the overall impact of the work-zone closure on the traveling public was manageable in most closures due to the efficient
implementation of the project TMP.  For example, a reduction of up to 70 percent of traffic
demand during peak hours was achieved in one weekend closure. Different lane closure
configurations yielded different work zone capacity values. This study can help guide state
agencies and transportation engineers in establishing adequate TMPs to improve mobility on
future rehabilitation projects.

California Department of Transportation

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Davis

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

North-south transit traffic through Switzerland has been increasing, and continues to do so
today. Growing traffic volumes and the increasing need for maintenance and repairs as the
roads and their infrastructure deteriorate with age; frequently give rise to traffic problems and
congestion, as a recent traffic study and analysis of road congestion clearly shows. And there
are no signs of a slow-down in these trends. Switzerland’s transport policy sets out to
overcome these problems through sustainable traffic development, and focuses on shifting
freight transport from road to rail. As a measure and basis for promoting the transfer of freight
transport from road to rail, Switzerland introduced a capacity- and distance-based heavy
goods vehicle fee in 2001 that applies to all trucks over 3.5 tonnes and throughout the
country’s entire road network. In addition an efficient traffic management and information
strategy on national level is needed to improve the actual situation, to improve road safety and
to reduce the negative aspects of road traffic and transportation. The analyse of the actual
traffic situation and planned solutions are listed in the following chapters of this report.

Swiss Federal Roads Authority

Presented at the 12th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 6-10, 2005, San Francisco, California