Developing Florida-specific Mobility Enhancement Factors (MEFs) and Crash Modification Factors (CMFs) for TSM&O Strategies Final Report FDOT Contract No: BDV29-977-46 Prepared by: Florida International University University of North Florida Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering School of Engineering 10555 West Flagler Street, EC 3628 1 UNF Drive Miami, FL 33174 Jacksonville, FL 32224 Prepared for: Research Center Florida Department of Transportation 605 Suwannee Street, MS 30 Tallahassee, FL 32399 Project Manager: Raj Ponnaluri, Ph.D., P.E., PTOE, PMP Co-Project Manager: Yujing "Tracey" Xie, P.E. March 2020 DISCLAIMER The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the State of Florida Department of Transportation. ii METRIC CONVERSION TABLE U.S. UNITS TO SI* (MODERN METRIC) UNITS SYMBOL WHEN YOU KNOW MULTIPLY BY TO FIND SYMBOL LENGTH in inches 25.400 millimeters mm ft feet 0.305 meters m yd yards 0.914 meters m mi miles 1.610 kilometers km mm millimeters 0.039 inches in m meters 3.280 feet ft m meters 1.090 yards yd km kilometers 0.621 miles mi SYMBOL WHEN YOU KNOW MULTIPLY BY TO FIND SYMBOL AREA in2 square inches 645.200 square mm2 millimeters ft2 square feet 0.093 square meters m2 yd2 square yard 0.836 square meters m2 ac acres 0.405 hectares ha mi2 square miles 2.590 square kilometers km2 mm2 square millimeters 0.0016 square inches in2 m2 square meters 10.764 square feet ft2 m2 square meters 1.195 square yards yd2 ha hectares 2.470 acres ac km2 square kilometers 0.386 square miles mi2 SYMBOL WHEN YOU KNOW MULTIPLY BY TO FIND SYMBOL VOLUME fl oz fluid ounces 29.570 milliliters mL gal gallons 3.785 liters L ft3 cubic feet 0.028 cubic meters m3 yd3 cubic yards 0.765 cubic meters m3 mL milliliters 0.034 fluid ounces fl oz L liters 0.264 gallons gal m3 cubic meters 35.314 cubic feet ft3 m3 cubic meters 1.307 cubic yards yd3 NOTE: volumes greater than 1,000 L shall be shown in m3. *SI is the symbol for the International System of Units. Appropriate rounding should be made to comply with Section 4 of ASTM E380. iii TECHNICAL REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient′s Catalog No. 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date Developing Florida-specific Mobility Enhancement Factors March 2020 (MEFs) and Crash Modification Factors (CMFs) for TSM&O 6. Performing Organization Code Strategies 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Priyanka Alluri, Thobias Sando, Cecilia Kadeha, Henrick Haule, Jimoku Salum, Md Sultan Ali, John Kodi, and Angela Kitali 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) Lehman Center for Transportation Research, Florida International University 11. Contract or Grant No. 10555 West Flagler Street, EC 3628 Miami, FL 33174; BDV29-977-46 School of Engineering, University of North Florida 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville, FL 32224 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered Florida Department of Transportation Final Report 605 Suwannee Street, MS 30 September 2018 – March 2020 14. Sponsoring Agency Code Tallahassee, FL 32399-0450 15. Supplementary Notes Dr. Raj Ponnaluri, P.E., PTOE, PMP, of the FDOT Traffic Engineering and Operations Office served as the Project Manager; and Yujing “Tracey” Xie, P.E., of the FDOT District IV Traffic Safety Office served as the Co-Project Manager for this project. 16. Abstract Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSM&O) focus on improving the safety and operational performance of the transportation network by integrating proven transportation management strategies and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has been a pioneer in adopting TSM&O strategies to improve safety and mobility of Florida's roadways. The primary goal of this research was to develop resources that can assist FDOT and other agencies in evaluating the effectiveness of the deployed TSM&O strategies. This research focused on quantifying the mobility and safety benefits of the following TSM&O strategies: ramp metering systems, dynamic message signs (DMSs), Road Rangers, express lanes, transit signal priority (TSP), and adaptive signal control technology (ASCT). The operational performance of the aforementioned strategies was evaluated using mobility performance measures such as travel time, travel time reliability, average speed adjustment, incident clearance duration, etc. Safety benefits were evaluated using the crash occurrence risk, secondary crash occurrence risk, and crash frequency as the performance measures. In general, all the evaluated TSM&O strategies were found to have resulted in safety and mobility improvements. The study results were incorporated into a spreadsheet application, the TSM&O Strategies Assessment Tool. The Tool was developed to automatically estimate the safety and mobility benefits of deploying the studied TSM&O strategies. The developed resources will enable FDOT and local agencies to prioritize TSM&O strategies using quantifiable safety and mobility metrics. 17. Key Word 18. Distribution Statement Mobility Enhancement Factors (MEFs), Crash Modification Factors (CMFs), TSM&O strategies. 19. Security Classif. (of this report) 20. Security Classif. (of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price Unclassified Unclassified 233 Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72). Reproduction of completed page authorized. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was funded by the Research Center of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). The authors would like to thank the Project Manager, Raj Ponnaluri, Ph.D., P.E., PTOE, PMP, of the FDOT Traffic Engineering and Operations Office, and the Co-Project Manager, Yujing “Tracey” Xie, P.E., of the FDOT District IV Traffic Safety Office, for their guidance and support throughout the project. Special thanks to the following individuals for providing data that were used for evaluating different TSM&O strategies in this project: • Mark Mathes, P.E., FDOT - District I • Peter Vega, P.E., FDOT - District II • Daniel Smith, PMP, FDOT - District IV • Arístides Concepción III, FDOT - District V • Charles R. Wetzel, P.E., PTOE, FDOT - District V • Shannon Watterson, FDOT - District V • Alejandro Motta, P.E., FDOT – District VI • Alex Mirones, FDOT - District VI • David Needham, FDOT – District VI • Maria C Guevara, E.I, FDOT - District VI • Rodney Carrero-Vila, P.E., FDOT - District VI • Jared Roso, FDOT - District VII SunGuide Center • Ivica Klanac, Trafficware • Jennifer Kennedy, P.E., PTOE, GISP, HNTB v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSM&O) is a program based on actively managing the multimodal transportation network, measuring performance, and streamlining and improving the existing system to deliver positive safety and mobility outcomes to the traveling public. TSM&O comprises a set of strategies that focus on operational improvements that can maintain or restore the performance of the existing transportation system before extra capacity is needed. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has been a pioneer in adopting TSM&O strategies to improve safety and mobility along Florida’s highways. A key FDOT milestone was the development and adoption of the 2017 TSM&O Strategic Plan, which outlines the agency’s vision, mission, goals, objectives, and priority TSM&O focus areas. The primary goal of this research was to develop resources to assist FDOT and other agencies in evaluating the mobility and safety effectiveness of some of the strategies identified in Florida’s TSM&O Strategic Plan. To accomplish the research goal, a comprehensive literature review was conducted on TSM&O strategies deployed in Florida. Various analysis methods were then employed, depending on the strategy being analyzed, to quantify the safety and mobility benefits of each strategy. The developed resources will enable FDOT and local agencies to prioritize TSM&O strategies using quantifiable safety and mobility metrics. The following TSM&O strategies were included in the evaluation: Freeways • Ramp Metering Systems • Dynamic Message Signs (DMSs) • Road Rangers • Express Lanes (ELs) Arterials • Transit Signal Priority (TSP) • Adaptive Signal Control Technology (ASCT) Ramp Metering System (RMS) Ramp metering or signaling is a traffic management strategy that installs traffic signals along freeway on-ramps to control and regulate the frequency at which vehicles enter the flow of traffic on the freeway mainline (Gan et al., 2011; Mizuta et al., 2014). The operational performance of ramp metering systems was quantified using a Mobility Enhancement Factor (MEF), which is a multiplicative factor used to describe the mobility benefits of a TSM&O strategy on a specific infrastructure element, i.e., intersection, corridor, etc. Travel time reliability was selected as the mobility performance measure for estimating the MEFs of the ramp metering system. The MEFs were developed based on the analysis of a corridor with system-wide ramp metering in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Buffer index (BI), estimated using the 95th percentile travel time vi and average travel time, was adopted as the travel time reliability measure for the analysis. The MEF for ramp metering at levels of service C and D (LOS C&D) was 0.784, indicating a 22% reduction in the BI values. The MEF for ramp metering operations during LOS E&F was 0.701, indicating a 30% reduction in the BI values. These results indicate that ramp metering operations improve mobility on the freeway mainline. The study analyzed the safety benefits of the ramp metering system using the crash occurrence risk on the freeway mainline. The risk of traffic crashes was estimated using a case-control study design of crash and non-crash cases. Results showed that the crash occurrence risk at a particular time was significantly affected by the standard deviation of speed 30 minutes before the time, standard deviation of occupancy 30 minutes before the time, and the ramp metering operations during that time.