6.0 Refinement of the Self-Evaluation and Planning Guide

Need header and footer in reports that users can print out based on user inputs. This will help when TMCs are printing multiple Guide section reports for multiple regions (such as in Louisiana) or having individuals fill out the Guide separately and then print it.

Added a form at the beginning of the Guide to allow users to enter the following:

• Created By
• TMC Name
• Region of Interest
• The information is included as the page footer in all the reports created.

Need additional sections in the Guide after Section 6. Currently, the TMCs get through the self-evaluation process and find themselves overwhelmed by the number of strategies presented to them. Need a structure that allows TMCs to further prioritize and narrow the set of strategies that they want to carry forward.

• This required restricting the content of Section 6. The text in the introduction section was simplified with an emphasis on the TMCs printing the reports, reviewing as a group, and testing some “what-if” scenarios.
• Once the TMC has reviewed the report, the user is directed to a new sub-form with the list of strategies that they have previously selected in Section 5. The TMC can prioritize these strategies for immediate or future implementation. Two new reports were created with user-selected strategies identifying immediate implementation and future implementation.

Comment in Section 1:
TMCs were confused about the terms “Area-wide” and “Region-wide”. This confusion needs to be resolved.

• Changed “Area-Wide” to “Corridor-Specific” to be consistent with the paper version of the Guide.

Comment from a TMC in Section 2 (Question 2.1):
Not clear what “Traffic Mgmt Device Impairment” means.
Not clear what “Increased use of equipment/labor” means, especially compared to the next choice “increased use of in-house labor”

• Changed the wording to “Traffic Control Device Malfunction (Signals, DMS, etc.)” as recommended by the TMC.
• Changed the wording to “Increased use of equipment/materials” and removed the word labor, as it was covered in the other choices.

Comment in Section 3:
Does not have update button
Section 4 button is next to Section 3 “Next Question” which is confusing
Question 3.4 – Rephrase slightly to make clear
Current Status – Default. Have the check-box uncheck itself.

• Changed the text to “Update and Move to Section 4”
• Moved the Section 4 button below and created a separator between the “Next question” and Section 4
• Cannot change this element in the Guide due to the structure of the underlying table and error checking requirements

Comments on Reports:
Check formatting of all reports
Word or PDF versions are suitable
Create new report in Section 6 with a subset of strategies that a TMC is interested in with a sense of priority.

• Checked, and revised as needed, formatting of all reports
• Office 2007 includes the ability to save the files as PDF
• Enhancements needed to be able to export to Microsoft Word were investigated but determined to be not easily programmable in Microsoft Access at this time.
• Section 6 changes described earlier in the table

Comments on Section 7:
The Guide stops abruptly and the outline is too complex.
Integration Plan outline needs to be revised based on experiences with TMCs

• Changed the text in the Section 7 form to clearly articulate the purpose of the weather information integration plan.
• Created a new outline for the TMCs to follow based on the previous TMCs’ experiences.

Editorial:
Spell out all acronyms in all the strategy descriptions
Check for typos

• Went through the Guide and spelled out acronyms and fixed typos, especially for Section 3 and Section 4