Relating Transportation Systems Management and Operations Strategies to Policy Goals: A Framework for Quantitative Decision Making

Abstract:

In an effort to maximize the use of limited funding due to decreasing tax revenue, transportation agencies across the country are giving greater consideration to low cost strategies as a means of addressing transportation problems. The majority of these strategies can be grouped under what is sometimes termed Transportation System Management and Operations (TSMO) strategies. This research effort develops a decision making framework that quantifies the strengths and weaknesses of select TSMO strategies relative to specific transportation policy goals. Previously, the limited availability and quality of performance measure data for individual strategies, a lack of consensus as to what performance measures are most appropriately mapped to a particular policy goal, and a lack of consistency between the performance measures associated with individual TSMO strategies have prevented a quantifiable assessment of TSMO performance. This work has conducted an extensive search for both national and local TSMO data sources that were reduced into a usable form. A four step decision making framework is then proposed and demonstrated on an example that includes four strategies and policy goals. This work provides a clear and user-friendly approach for transportation managers and decision makers to quantify the selection of one TSMO strategy over another.

Keywords::

• Transportation Management
• Transportation Planning
• Transportation Decision Making
• TSMO