1.0 Introduction

The objective of the Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) initiative is to demonstrate how Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies can efficiently and proactively manage the movement of people and goods in major transportation corridors. The objectives of the “ICM – Tools, Strategies and Deployment Support” project are to refine Analysis Modeling and Simulation (AMS) tools and strategies, assess Pioneer Site data capabilities, conduct AMS for up to four Stage 2 ICM Pioneer Sites, and conduct AMS tools post-demonstration evaluations.

Efforts under this project focus on analyzing the ICM systems proposed by the Stage 2 Pioneer AMS Sites and evaluating the expected benefits to be derived from implementing those ICM systems. The overall benefits of this effort include:

Helping decision-makers identify gaps, evaluate ICM strategies and invest in the best combination of strategies that would minimize congestion and improve safety;
Helping estimate the benefit resulting from ICM across different transportation modes and traffic control systems; and
Transferring knowledge about analysis methodologies, tools and possible benefits of ICM strategies to the Pioneer Sites and to the entire transportation community.

The overall AMS effort includes the following tasks:

Identify AMS data needs and assess Pioneer Site capabilities.
Develop methodologies to model ICM strategies – the results of this task are summarized in this document.
Test and validate these methodologies in a test corridor. This will result in flexible, relevant methods for tractable, valid modeling of ICM concepts.
Use AMS methodologies and existing tools to model up to four Pioneer Site corridors. This will help identify cost-effective ICM strategies, and help prioritize ICM investments based on expected performance.
Validate methodologies and tools based on Pioneer Site demonstrations. The overall effort will result in validated and tested methodologies to support ICM analysis.

This AMS Methodologies Document provides a discussion of potential ICM analytical approaches for the assessment of generic corridor operations. The AMS framework described in this report identifies strategies and procedures for tailoring AMS general approaches toward individual corridors with different application requirements and modeling characteristics. This framework is based on the analysis of advantages and deficiencies of existing tools, and the identification of cost-effective and low-risk strategies to integrate existing tools into an internally-consistent and flexible system approach that is able to support various ICM functional requirements.

This document outlines a range of potential analytical approaches for the assessment of corridor operations, and includes a description of the proposed methodological approaches based on an assessment of existing types of tools and their potential enhancement. This document describes the specific recommended tools, deficiencies to be overcome, and how these tools can be improved to support the AMS methodology.

This document is not a guide on how to conduct AMS for Pioneer Sites. In Task 2.7, we will document the previously developed tools and strategies in a final report. The final report will document lessons-learned from the application of the AMS methodology on the test corridor, and will present the modified AMS methodologies. In addition to documenting the AMS methodologies, the documentation will include a categorization of AMS tools and interfaces to be used in different corridor settings; for different ICM strategies to be modeled; for different types of analysis scenarios; desired performance measures allowing for consistent comparison of ICM strategies; recommended validation/calibration steps and targets; the relative capability of the AMS activity to support benefit-cost assessment for the successful implementation of ICM; potential risks and applicability; and schedule/budget guidelines for ICM AMS activities.

This report is organized as follows:

The remainder of Chapter 1.0 outlines the principles guiding the development of the ICM AMS methodologies;

Chapter 2.0 provides definitions for existing AMS tools and assessments of these tools’ abilities to model ICM strategies.

Chapter 3.0 presents a proposed structure for the corridor analysis approach, desired performance measures, how to take into account non-recurrent congestion, guidelines for the analysis of existing and future conditions, and expected output from the ICM AMS analysis efforts.

Chapter 4.0 presents the proposed AMS methodologies including model components (macroscopic travel demand models, and mesoscopic and microscopic simulation models), the representation of mode shift and transit, the representation of traveler information, the representation of congestion pricing strategies, and interface requirements;

Chapter 5.0 presents conclusions and next steps; and

Appendix A presents additional options for the analysis of traveler information in ICM AMS.

1.1 Principles in Developing AMS Methodologies

A number of principles apply in developing and applying AMS methodologies. These are summarized as follows:

Resource and schedule constraint – The overall ICM AMS effort must take place within the budget and schedule specified in the Scope of Work and Workplan. Data, models, and tools available at the Pioneer Sites will be leveraged in the AMS effort.
Focus on integration of existing tools – The ICM AMS effort does not focus on developing new analytical tools; instead, it focuses on a relevant, meaningful application of existing modeling and simulation tools.
Recognize current limitations in available tools and data – There are known gaps in existing analysis tools that the AMS methodology must bridge. Examples of these gaps include the dynamic analysis of transit and mode shift, and the dynamic analysis of ICM strategies such as traveler information or congestion pricing. Bridging these gaps requires the interface of existing analysis tools with different capabilities.
Be vendor-neutral – Developed AMS methodologies and interfaces must be vendor-neutral and not favor one specific tool over other available tools. Interfaces developed under this effort must be universal enough to be able to function with the structure of major available tools used by transportation analysts.
Consistency of analytical approaches and performance measures – ICM Pioneer Sites have different analysis tools at their disposal. The application of the AMS methodology to the various Pioneer Sites must be consistent in terms of analysis approach and performance measures. Consistency is necessary for a meaningful comparison of expected benefits resulting from the implementation of ICM strategies at the different Pioneer Sites.
Benefit-cost analysis – Expected benefits resulting from the implementation of ICM strategies will be compared to expected costs to produce estimates of benefit-cost ratios and net benefits associated with the deployment of ICM strategies. This will help identify cost-effective ICM strategies, help differentiate between low-payoff and high-payoff ICM strategies, and help prioritize ICM investments based on expected performance.

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