Monitoring Urban Roadways in 2000: Using Archived Operations Data for Reliability and Mobility Measurement (FHWA-09-02-029)

The report summarizes the processes and products from a study of the real-time traffic data generated from the Transportation Operations Centers (TOCs) in 10 cities in 2000. Automatically collected data was analyzed for data quality and completeness and a database prepared for the sections of instrumented freeway. The database format consists of traffic volume, lane occupancy and speed records for every freeway section for each 5-minute period of the year. Other inventory information such as section length, number of lanes, detector type and other characteristics were also collected. Several mobility and reliability measures were produced - all are based on travel time concepts. They examine the level of travel delay and mobility, as well as the variation in travel conditions from day-to-day through the year and between roadways in urban areas. A variety of illustration techniques and statistical analysis methods are included in the main report. An appendix was created for each city to show ways to provide detailed summaries of average and unusual conditions for corridors and the system. Current practice emphasizes the real-time uses of the data for operations purposes but, in many cities, does not include extensive use of the data for other purposes. If the products from real-time databases assist operators and planners, there will be more interest in making the effort to create and improve the data collection process and the databases.