Increasing Operational Capabilities of Local Agencies

Jim Fox - DirectorCity and County of Denver

Transportation Operations Division

TSMO Regional and Local Agency Peer ExchangeMay 8, 2019

Background

• Traffic congestion in the City of Denver and throughout the metropolitan area continues to increase

• In a 2017 report release by INRIX, Denver is ranked as the 21st most congested city in the United States

• The population in the Metro Denver area has continued to increase

• Based upon information from the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, the Metro Denver area has experienced an average 1.6% annual population growth since 2010 and the population for the metro area is expected to continue to increase with a projected population of 4,000,000 by 2035

• Although many initiatives and programs have increased the usage of public transit and other forms of transportation it is expected the transportation network’s vehicle hours of delay will continue to rise

Background

• Addressing the current and future congestion requires the combined efforts of multiple programs and initiatives which include operations and the application of technology

• Operations involves the ideas that lead to maximizing the performance of the transportation network

• Technology has been integrated into transportation agencies for decades but now there has been significant increase in new and emerging technologies

• The Transportation Operations Division sits at the confluence of operations and technology

Transportation Operations Division

• The Transportation Operations Division is a part of the City’s Department of Public Works

• Comprised of the following sections:

• Traffic signal maintenance and construction

• Traffic signs and markings

• Systems operations

• Curbside and Parking

• Utilities Administration

• Traditionally references to “operations” in the City have referred to job functions that are in fact considered maintenance

• Although there have been some actions that in alignment with the concepts of TSMO, such as the opening of a traffic management center, there has not been deliberate attempts to adopt both the philosophy and to look for increased operational capabilities

Transportation Operations Division

• Newly stated mission of the Division:

“Supports managing the performance of the transportation infrastructure to improve safety, mobility and reliability of the system for all transportation

modes.”

• What does it mean to “manage the performance of the transportation infrastructure”

• Foundational services

• Asset management

• Optimizing the flow of transportation modes

• Real-time operations

Transportation Operations Division

• In order to manage the performance of the transportation network the Division is initiating:

• Increasing the operational capabilities of the Denver Traffic Management Center

• Continuing to explore technology deployments

• Formal state of good repair programs

Denver Traffic Management Center

• The Denver TMC is responsible for real-time monitoring and management of the City’s transportation network

• Since its creation in the 1990’s the Denver TMC had been an operation with a heavy focus upon traffic signal operations• This included managing special events and traffic associated with professional

sport teams• To address current and future traffic issues the City is looking to enhance the

operations of the Denver TMC to increase active management of the transportation network

Denver Traffic Management Center

• Operational Readiness

• Situational Awareness

• Information Dissemination

• Data Analysis

• Deployment of Operational Strategies

• Traffic Signal Operations

• Identification of Operational Issues

Core Functions of the Denver TMC

Transportation Technology

• There has been a drastic increase in the availability of new technology that can be leveraged in monitoring and managing the roadway network

• Recent technological initiatives within the City

• Smart Cities

• Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment Program

• Enterprise Data Management

• Denver TMC staff participate as part of the City’s project team for implementing technology related to transportation

• This allows for operational perspectives to be included in the design stages

Implementing New Technologies

Deployment of Transportation Technology

Situational Awareness Dashboard• While the ingestion of public safety CAD is not a new concept, the Denver TMC did not have this information• Severely impacted situational awareness

• Worked with internal partners to deliver a situational awareness dashboard to be used in the Traffic Management Center that included data regarding crashes

• Alerts the Denver TMC to traffic incidents on the transportation network

• Once detected the TMC can verify and then work to understand the impacts

• Provides increased opportunities for the TMC to actively monitor and manage disruptions to the transportation network

Transportation Technology

Situational Awareness Dashboard• What are the benefits?

• Detecting disruptions to the transportation network

• Historically it has been a challenge to have situational awareness of incidents

• Actively managing any resulting congestion

• Temporary changes to signal timing

• Coordination with other Denver agencies

• Coordination with external partners

• Colorado DOT

• Other local public agencies

Transportation Technology

Situational Awareness Dashboard

Transportation Technology

Case Studies of the Application of Operational Strategies

Case Studies – Incident Response

• Integration of technology allows the Denver TMC to increase its operational capabilities and to conduct active traffic management

• As an example the Denver TMC is responding to incidents on the transportation network by monitoring and actively managing the disrupted traffic flow

• Roadways under the purview of the City and County of Denver• Colorado DOT roadways with impacts to the Denver network

• Three incidents where the Denver TMC actively managed and as a result, congestion was decreased• Full closure of a major arterial due to a water main break• Full closure of the Interstate due to a crash involving a tanker• Lanes closures of a major arterial due to a crash involving a bus

Case Studies – Incident Response

• On Friday, May 4, 2018 an incident that involved a full closure of a major arterial was detected

• Efforts were taken to determine the de facto diversion routes• The active management included making changes to the traffic signal

timing to accommodate the change in volume seen on the diversion route• In order to navigate around the closures diverted vehicles used a left-turn

bay at a downstream intersection• This resulted in an overflow of vehicles into the thru lanes which then

cascaded to other lanes• Changes to traffic signal timing were made in an iterative process by

continuing to actively monitor and manage the network• The Denver TMC was able to visually notice improvements to the roadway

once traffic signal timing changes were implemented

Case Study – Incident Response

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Travel time data source: INRIX

Case Study – Incident Response

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Case Studies – Incident Response

Case Studies – Incident Response

Thank You

Jim FoxCity and County of Denverjames.fox@denvergov.org

720.865.4060