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Sketch-Level Approach to Incorporate Active Traffic Management into the Regional Planning Process

Active traffic management (ATM) investments, such as variable speed limits (VSLs), queue warning systems, hard shoulder running, and dynamic ramp metering, offer mobility, safety, and environmental benefits. ATM investments differ from conventional capacity investments in a number of ways, such as lower capital costs, shorter planning horizons, reduced right-of-way requirements, and heightened need to consider longer-term operations. As a result, agencies sometimes have difficulty in determining how to incorporate ATM into the planning process. This paper develops a conceptual framework to enable consideration of ATM investments alongside traditional capacity investments in the regional transportation planning process. Although states and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) already consider operational initiatives to some degree, the proposed framework offers 10 practices to strengthen regional planning for ATM initiatives. Practices include (a) linking ATM to the MPO's congestion management plan, (b) using operations-related performance measures such as delay and reliability, (c) using sketch planning techniques to estimate the safety and environmental aspects of ATM when detailed simulation studies are infeasible, (d) encouraging the inclusion of operations-related goals in local and regional plans, and (e) relating ATM to statewide policies. The framework uses a mixture of two strategies: translating ATM effects into a planning-related narrative and modifying the planning process to be compatible with ATM. The rationale is not to promote ATM as more effective than other types of investments but rather to compare ATM objectively with such investments. The framework is demonstrated with a case study of VSLs on Interstate 66 in Virginia.