FHWA Operations Related Resources for Local Agencies
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations and our partner Offices throughout FHWA and the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) develop products and resources relevant to agencies at all Government levels. Some products and resources may be more suited to State transportation agencies, and others more relevant to local and regional agencies. We have compiled a list of FHWA operations resources relevant to local and regional contexts. This list helps local and regional agencies more quickly identify and access relevant transportation operations materials:
- Access Management
- Complete Streets
- Curbside Management
- Freight and Goods Movement
- Integrated Corridor Management
- Organizing and Planning for Operations
- Parking
- Pricing
- Shared Use Mobility, Mobility on Demand, Travel Demand Management
- Traffic Control Devices and the MUTCD
- Traffic Incident Management
- Traffic Signal Operations and Management
- Transportation Equity
Access Management
- Access Management is a set of techniques that State and local Governments can use to control access to highways, major arterials, and other roadways. The Access Management Web Page provides a definition of access management, shows how access management can be achieved, and provides links to publications and resources.
Complete Streets
- The Complete Streets website serves as the FHWA’s clearinghouse of internal and external information on streets designed and operated to enable safe use and support mobility for all users.
Curbside Management
Curbside spaces pose challenges and tradeoffs among accessibility, delivery access, and micromobility needs:
The FHWA Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty and the Office of Operations, in collaboration with ITE, recently developed the to support communities in managing curb space considerations.
This page provides additional curbside management resources as they become available.
Freight and Goods Movement
As demand for freight transportation rises, shippers and carriers must find new ways to operate in and through urban areas to deliver goods on time and at a low cost. This page provides links to noteworthy practices and resources related to urban goods movement.
This handbook provides transportation and land use planning practitioners with tools and resources to assess the impacts of land-use decisions on freight movements, and the impacts of freight development and growth on land use planning goals.
This webpage provides several resources including links to the National Coalition on Truck Parking, Jason’s Law, and funding information. In addition, FHWA’s Office of Freight Management and Operations is currently developing a Truck Parking Development Handbook that will provide practitioners with resources to plan for, advocate for and implement truck parking. The guidebook will also highlight how truck parking can be in harmony with city and county ordinances and land uses.
Integrated Corridor Management
This Desk Reference is designed to equip State, regional, and local transportation operations and planning professionals with the knowledge and tools necessary to effectively plan for and implement TSMO within a corridor.
This primer focuses on opportunities for co-deployment synergies and how approaches and lessons learned from Integrated Corridor Management and Smart Cities initiatives can be translated to the other. The institutional relationships, operational processes, and technical methods developed as part of the successful ICM deployment may be extended across different regions and different public service areas as part of a broader smart cities program.
Organizing and Planning for Operations
This page provides a broad overview of TSMO, including TSMO benefits, organizational issues, examples, implementation considerations, and answers to a range of frequently asked questions about TSMO.
This primer provides several examples of what TSMO might look like in a smart, connected community.
This primer describes the role of transportation systems management and operations in advancing livability and sustainability. The primer also provides a vision of how the regional transportation system could look in the future if TSMO strategies were comprehensively implemented to advance livability and sustainability goals
Regional collaboration and coordination are the foundation for effective planning for operations. This page provides links to resources to help agencies establish the critical collaborative processes to advance operations in their regions.
A CMP is a systematic and regionally-accepted approach for managing congestion that provides accurate, up-to-date information on transportation system performance and assesses alternative strategies for congestion management that meet State and local needs. This page provides links to CMP resources and examples.
A Regional Concept for Transportation Operations (RCTO) is a management tool that assists in planning and implementing Transportation Systems Management and Operations strategies in a collaborative and sustained manner. This page provides links to RCTO resources and examples.
Transportation agencies across the country are institutionalizing TSMO as a core function of their agency, and many have found it valuable to develop a TSMO program plan encompassing strategic, programmatic, and tactical elements to help structure and sustain their TSMO programs. This page provides resources on how to develop a TSMO program plan and provides links to many regional and State DOT TSMO plans.
Parking
- An Assessment of the Expected Impacts of City-Level Parking Cash-Out and Commuter Benefits Ordinances (FHWA-HOP-23-023)
This project analyzed and evaluated the impact city‑level parking cash‑out ordinances could have on vehicle travel, congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, crashes, and equity externalities for a sample of nine cities and five distinct scenarios. The final report describes the scenarios studied; the analysis approach, including inputs, outputs, methodology, limitations, and assumptions; data sources; and results for the sample of cities.
- Parking Cruising Analysis Methodology: Final Project Report (FHWA-HOP-23-004)
Motorists circling or cruising for on-street parking that is free or priced below market equilibrium can contribute to congestion and other problems. This report documents a methodology and tool that can be used to understand cruising for parking and the effects of policy interventions on parking search behaviors. It includes case analyses from four U.S. cities, identifying cruising hot spots by time of day and location and assessing policy impacts. The report also documents lessons learned relating to data quality, tool implementation, and the analyses results.
- Contemporary Approaches to Parking Pricing: A Primer (FHWA-HOP-12-026)
This primer discusses advances covering a broad array of parking pricing applications, technology, preferred user accommodations, and strategies for gaining public acceptance for parking policy changes.
Active parking management is the dynamic management of parking facilities in a region to optimize the performance and utilization of those facilities. This page provides examples of Active Parking Management strategies.
Pricing
Congestion pricing - sometimes called value pricing - is a way of harnessing the power of the market to reduce the waste associated with traffic congestion. By removing a fraction (even as small as 5 percent) of the vehicles from a congested roadway, pricing enables the system to flow much more efficiently, allowing more cars to move through the same physical space. This page provides an overview of congestion pricing and provides links to specific toll and non-toll congestion pricing strategies.
Priced vehicle sharing involves the provision of vehicles, typically by a commercial vendor, for use by members in exchange for an hourly or daily charge. This page provides links to priced vehicle sharing and dynamic ridesharing.
Shared Use Mobility, Travel Demand Management, Livability
- Providing a 5-Minute Pickup Priority for Ridehail Users Agreeing to Pool: Potential Impacts on Curtailing Bus Delay and Enhancing Equity (FHWA-HOP-23-013)
The purpose of this study is to explore the potential to significantly enhance equity and reduce congestion experienced by city bus riders due to transportation network company (TNC) operations (most especially within corridors with significant bus service) through select TNC or government policy measures. The study analyzes data from a survey conducted by a large TNC, coupled with appended demographic and trip data, to ascertain the impacts of changing private party and shared party TNC pricing and trip times to encourage TNC customers to choose a shared instead of a ride-alone trip. The research looks at the impacts of both total trip + wait time and price on customer decisions to choose a pooling option or to instead insist on a private trip. Compressing the difference in duration between shared and drive-alone trips (including wait time for initial pick up) by 5 minutes is shown to roughly double the proportion of TNC trips that customers choose to share to about 50% of all such trips.
This study used data from a large transportation network company (TNC) and analytical tools to evaluate several scenarios of varying cost and time differentials to determine the likelihood of increased ridesharing by TNC users.
- Expanding Traveler Choices through the Use of Incentives: A Compendium of Examples (FHWA-HOP-18-071)
This primer explores the use of incentives and behavioral economic approaches being used or tested by transportation agencies, academic institutions, and private vendors to influence travelers to shift their behavior (mode, time of travel, or route) to alleviate congestion and proactively manage the transportation system.
This is a self-assessment tool agencies or regions can use to define current capabilities in demand management practices as part of Transportation Systems Management and Operations. Agencies can use the tool to determine their current capabilities, after which the tool can provide a list of concrete actions for agencies to consider to raise their capabilities to the desired levels.
Active demand management uses information and technology to dynamically manage demand, which could include redistributing travel to less congested times of day or routes, or reducing overall vehicle trips by influencing a mode choice. This page shows examples of Active Demand Management strategies.
This primer provides an introduction and background to shared mobility, discusses the Government’s role, reviews success stories, examines challenges, lessons learned, and possible solutions, and concludes with guiding principles for public agencies.
The USDOT uses the term Mobility on Demand (MOD) to represent its vision for future mobility. MOD envisions a safe, reliable and carefree mobility ecosystem that supports complete trips for all, both personalized mobility and goods delivery. This page is the gateway to USDOT MOD-related research, reports, and events.
This page provides resources that highlight ways that multimodal transportation investments promote economic revitalization, provide access to jobs, and achieve safer communities.
Traffic Control Devices and the MUTCD
The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD) is the national standard for all traffic control devices installed on any street, highway, bikeway, or private road open to public travel.
The MUTCD Web site contains responses to frequently asked questions about the MUTCD and individual topic areas of the MUTCD.
The FHWA conducted four informational Webinars for the Notice of Proposed Amendments (NPA) for the 11th edition of the MUTCD and the revision and comment processes, as well as highlights of proposed changes for pedestrians, bicycles, transit, urban traffic control, and local jurisdictions, cities, and communities.
Traffic Incident Management
Traffic Incident Management, or TIM, offers coordinated strategies to detect, respond to, and clear traffic incidents. TIM programs increase traveler and responder safety. They also improve travel reliability, air quality, energy use, accessibility to local businesses, and commerce. When a crash, debris, a stalled vehicle, or other incident affects roadways, TIM programs ensure that responders collaborate to clear the incident scene safely and quickly. Firefighters, emergency medical services and technicians, law enforcement, towing and recovery, public works, transportation, and 911 dispatchers are many of the disciplines that work together using well-rehearsed procedures and advanced technologies to save lives, prevent secondary crashes, and return traffic to normal conditions. Following are TIM resources for local agencies:
The FHWA Every Day Counts Round Six program, Next Generation TIM, provides information, technical support, factsheets, workshops and other resources to help local agencies integrate technology (e.g., video sharing, computer-aided dispatch integration, unmanned aircraft systems), data, and training to establish and advance their TIM programs.
The Talking TIM webinar series by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides a forum where TIM champions with any level of experience can exchange information about current practices, programs, and technologies. On the third Wednesday of each month, from 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM ET, the FHWA TIM Program Team features content that highlights successful TIM programs, identifies best practices, and showcases technology that advances the profession. Recording and presenter briefings from webinars are also available.
The Traffic Incident Management Self-Assessment (TIMSA) provides a formal process for local transportation, public safety, and private sector partners to collaboratively assess their traffic incident management programs and identify opportunities for improvement. In 2021, the FHWA offered two TIMSA options –one for established TIM programs and a second for rural and emerging TIM programs. For more information, view the 2021 TIMSA webinar recording.
The FHWA makes available multiple free options for local agencies to train all traffic incident response personnel. Self-paced training is available online through the National Highway Institute or the Responder Safety Learning Network. In-person training can be coordinated by contacting the TIM Training specialists for each State through the FHWA TIM Responder Training website’s Quick Links.
Local agencies can leverage free or low-cost data and analytics from social media, mobile applications, and other crowdsourced data to better detect, respond to, and clear roadway incidents. Visit the FHWA Every Day Counts Round Six program, Crowdsourcing for Advancing Operations, for information, technical support, and other resources (for example, the City of Louisville, KY and Lake County, IL case studies). The program also offers several webinar recordings, many focusing on local TIM (for example, Open-Source Code to Jumpstart Analytics).
Traffic Signal Operations and Management
This page is the FHWA gateway to resources related to Traffic Signal Program Management, Regional Traffic Signal Operations Programs, Traffic Signal Timing and Operations Strategies, and Automated Traffic Signal Performance Measures.
This is a self-assessment tool agencies or regions can use to assess current capabilities with respect to traffic signal program management. Once the current capabilities are identified, the tool provides a set of potential actions to address risks associated with current practices.
Transportation Equity
- These U.S. Department of Transportation pages provide general information on transportation equity as well as relationships between equity and public health and environmental justice.
