Organizing for TSMO
Case Study 1: Business Processes – Optimizing Existing Planning and Implementation Processes with TSMO
Chapter 2 - Best Practice Examples
The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), Iowa Department of Transportation (IowaDOT), and the Florida Department of Transportation District 5 (FDOT D5) participated in previous second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) efforts. The capability maturity model (CMM) workshops with SHRP2 helped inform them about transportation systems management and operations (TSMO) and how it can apply to their agencies' business processes. This chapter highlights several successful initiatives each agency accomplished, specifically regarding business processes for TSMO.
North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG)
NCTCOG Transportation Department serves a 12-county Metropolitan Planning Area of North Central Texas. Areas served include Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Denton-Lewisville, and McKinney urbanized areas and surroundings. NCTCOG works closely with regional, State, and federal partners to "strengthen both the individual and collective power of local governments and to help them recognize regional opportunities, eliminate unnecessary duplication, and make joint decisions.1" Major products produced by NCTCOG include a long-range Metropolitan Transportation Plan, a shorter-term Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), a Congestion Management Process, and a Unified Planning Work Program.
Revised Planning Processes
NCTCOG works with partner agencies to develop the region's TIP, which includes a list of funded and prioritized projects for implementation. TIPs from other regions are compiled to make up the statewide TIP. Each region's TIP is comprised of projects developed by NCTCOG and other partner agencies. After NCTCOG completed their CMM assessment, they revised the TIP eligibility criteria for projects to include TSMO strategies, such as inclusion in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Strategic Deployment Plan, the project's impact on congestion challenges, and if the project enables collection of real-time data, among others. This criterion is referred to as the Traffic Signal and Intelligent Transportation System Project Selection Criteria. The criteria are shown in Figure 2.
NCTCOG also identified whether TSMO could help address the needs of a corridor using an innovative approach by utilizing asset management data. The agency expanded their asset management concept to include a focus on system performance. This enhancement enables identification of corridor-specific "hot spots" in which TSMO strategies could improve overall system performance. The agency uses these opportunities to pilot TSMO projects that will immediately demonstrate the cost-saving, performance-driven, and enhanced safety benefits of TSMO strategies. These activities have helped NCTCOG obtain buy-in from local decision makers to include TSMO in transportation planning activities.
Revising their legacy project selection criteria and planning activities has enabled NCTCOG to incorporate TSMO solutions in their traditional planning process. The agency uses cost-efficient, short-term TSMO strategies which releases previously allocated resources to make funds available for other long-term planned projects.
Transitioning from Planning to Implementation
Since NCTCOG became more active with planning for TSMO, they have worked diligently in the region to deploy several TSMO strategies, such as vanpool programs, traffic signal re-timing, employer trip reduction programs, incident management, and more. Different agencies within NCTCOG's region support each TSMO strategy deployed. Some are supported by the Federal Highway Administration and the Texas Department of Transportation, while others receive backing from regional agencies such as municipalities, emergency services, transit agencies, or counties. Before any strategy can be deployed, NCTCOG develops agreements with the supporting agency. As NCTCOG increased the number of operational and management strategies deployed, they learned that they needed additional support to move from planning to implementation. The agency created what they refer to as a "grant fiscal team" to manage contracts and agreements for individual strategy deployments. Managing agreements has been a large undertaking for the agency as they continue to grow the types of programs they implement.
The process used for implementation of TSMO strategies differs between agencies. NCTCOG identified challenges associated with growing implementation demands and countered this by creating a dedicated group specifically for implementation. This refined deployment process has enabled planning and implementation groups to focus solely on desired mobility strategies and left the administrative tasks to their newly established "grant fiscal team."
Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG)
MAG is a Council of Governments that serves as the regional air quality planning agency and MPO for transportation in Maricopa County. This includes the Phoenix area and the neighboring urbanized area in Pinal County, containing the Town of Florence and City of Maricopa. MAG provides regional planning and policy decisions in areas of transportation, air quality, water quality, and human services. MAG was formed in 1967 when local elected officials recognized the need for long-range planning and policy development on a regional scale. They realized that many issues such as transportation and air quality affected residents beyond the borders of their individual jurisdictions.2
Investing in TSMO
The population of Arizona is mostly located in the greater Phoenix and Tucson areas. The metropolitan Phoenix area, located in Maricopa County, makes up about 68 percent of the State's population. Since development of their ITS program in 2001, MAG has worked to broaden their spectrum to accommodate all parts of the county, including areas with less dense population. In the MPO's Systems Management and Operations Plan investment priorities have been identified to accommodate all agencies that maintain the region's transportation network. MAG's TSMO plan identifies four investment priorities to accommodate the needs of the region: Integrated Corridor Management, Regional Priority Arterials, Local Priority Corridors, and Regional Operations Priorities. Table 1 shows details for these investment priorities.
Table 1. MAG TSMO Investment Priorities
| Investment Priority |
Description |
Implementing Agencies |
| Integrated Corridor Management |
Equipping freeway segments and major arterials (including crossings) adjacent to the freeway for diversion strategies. |
Departments of transportation (DOT), local agencies, and MAG |
| Regional Priority Arterials |
Managing traffic on segments of high-priority corridors to improve safety, reliability, and mobility. |
Local agencies |
| Local Priority Corridors |
Provisions placed for local priority projects to be considered for inclusion in the TIP. |
Local agencies |
| Regional Operations Priorities |
Traffic operations support at the regional level. Includes programs versus specific infrastructure. |
DOTs, local agencies, emergency services, transit, MAG |
In the TSMO plan, MAG notes that projects helping the agency realize TSMO objectives and goals will be given priority in planning efforts. Based on priority investments, MAG selected 25 TSMO strategies for project deployment and identified how and when these strategies will be funded and implemented.
MAG's unique approach to planning for TSMO by first considering investment capabilities enabled the agency to develop realistic, measurable, and achievable strategies for implementation. The MPO considered the financial capabilities of all regions in the county, realizing the needs of the entire transportation network. The project selection process identified in the agency's TSMO plan is anticipated to improve project implementation in the region despite the common challenge of resource allocation.
Florida Department of Transportation, District 5 (FDOT D5)
FDOT D5 is one of seven districts in Florida. FDOT D5 covers nine counties and spans nearly 9,000 square miles. The district is home to tourist destination Orlando. Over 4,100,000 residents who travel around 125.9 million vehicle miles daily on roads live in the FDOT D5 region. The area is also served by seven transit authorities, one passenger rail line, four freight rail lines, one deep-water port, 25 public use and 133 private use airports, and is home to Space Florida.3 FDOT D5 can be seen in Figure 3. The TSMO Division of FDOT is part of the Traffic Engineering and Operations Office. The TSMO Division is responsible for managing the State's ITS program, which facilitates mobility strategies and programs.
Figure 3. Image. FDOT District 5
Source: FDOT
TSMO Implementation Plan
Following an initial capability maturity model (CMM) assessment in 2014, FDOT D5 began working on their TSMO Implementation Plan. To develop the plan, a multi-discipline team including other local agencies convened to discuss regional needs and challenges. They identified short-term solutions and assigned them to various agency personnel for implementation. The team also looked at long-term solutions and developed a prioritization process for implementation. Through these collaborative meetings, several goals were established as key items for the implementation plan to address. FDOT D5 performed a followup CMM assessment in 2017 to evaluate progress of the implementation plan and identify areas where continued focus is needed. Several business processes were identified as maturing the agency's capabilities in this dimension.
As part of the implementation plan, FDOT D5 developed a task action matrix to track progress of achieving TSMO goals and objectives for business processes. As shown in Figure 4, the matrix identifies the progress of a task, who is responsible for delivery, when the task should be completed, and which TSMO goal and objective the task supports.
A table with columns of Goals, Objectives, Task Actin Items, Current Progress, Task leader, and Deliverable Due. 2 Goals are identified: 1) Consensus on a standardized and documented TSM&O project development life cycle to include template, project schedules, scoping language and requirements (NEPA, SYS engineering, FTA), and 2) Develop a programming and budgeting processes for TSM&O. The first goal has four objectives: 1) Detail a cradle-to-grave project development process for all FDOT projects by 2018, 2) Clearly define roles and responsibilities of different functional units within the project development life cycle as illustrated in the Organization & Workforce Dimension, 3) Identify requirements associated with different improvement strategies (i.e. transit improvements, ITS deployment, environmental impacts) by 2018). The second goal has one objective: 1) Identify potential TSM&O program funding source(s) 2020.
Figure 4. Chart. Excerpt from Task Action Matrix
Source: Transportation Systems Management and Operations Implementation Plan FDOT D5, 2017.
Also included in FDOT D5's implementation plan is a proposed MPO/Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) project prioritization process. FDOT D5 recommends that each MPO in the region revisit their project prioritization to ensure that performance values, goals, and objectives are considered, and more outcome-based projects are selected to support regional needs. FDOT D5 recommended that each MPO develop corridor master plans to identify opportunities to deploy TSMO strategies. They recommend implementing a scoring process to ensure project prioritization is informed by data-driven outcomes. Figure 5 shows the varying levels for TSMO strategies.
Level 1 - Consider transit services; ensure pedestrian and bicycle connectivity; staff for maintenance of signal systems; report metrics for signal systems; and consider investments in alternative intersection design. Level 2 - Establish communication to roadside; provide enhanced controllers and detection; count pedestrians and bikes; calibrate demand model for features during updates. Level 3 - Staff for operations; outfit buses with automated vehicle location and automatic passenger counters. Level 4 - Add cameras; improve transit coverage; improve pedestrian/bike level of service; consider dynamic message signs; consider transportation management centers. Level 5 - Add preemption via connected vehicle; add automatic vehicle identification for vehicles, likely connected vehicles; implement integrated corridor management; consider adaptive signal control.
Figure 5. Chart. Levels for TSMO Strategy Consideration
Source: Transportation Systems Management and Operations Implementation Plan FDOT D5, 2017.
FDOT D5 attributes the implementation plan's success to their TSMO Consortium. This group initially came together around 15 years ago and included regional traffic offices sharing best practices. Through the first CMM in 2014, FDOT D5 identified the need to bring in a wider audience. The group shifted to include all MPOs, TPOs, counties, major municipalities, and other local agencies and became established as the region's TSMO Consortium. The group meets bi-monthly to discuss regional TSMO challenges, strategies, programs, and successes.
Iowa Department of Transportation (IowaDOT)
The Office of Traffic Operations is part of the Highway Division of IowaDOT. The Highway Division's responsibilities include design/planning, maintenance, construction, operations, and support of intelligent transportation system technology. IowaDOT is divided into six geographical districts, each responsible for maintaining the State highway system in their respective region. The Office of Traffic Operations released IowaDOT's first TSMO plan in early 2016. Since its release, IowaDOT continues to improve TSMO processes and grow their TSMO program.
Incorporating TSMO
Following IowaDOT's first CMM assessment in 2013, the agency began building their TSMO Plan to accommodate transportation challenges in the State. The agency structured their TSMO Plan into three components:
- TSMO Strategic Plan: This plan highlights transportation challenges in the State,identifies the business case for TSMO, and discusses the strategic objectives, vision, mission, and goals for IowaDOT's TSMO Program.
- TSMO Program Plan: This plan outlines the operational resources and processes needed to support TSMO in the agency. It discusses programmatic objectives and strategies needed to deliver the Strategic Plan.
- TSMO Service Layer Plans: These plans detail in-depth action items to optimize several service needs such as work zone management and incident management.
To develop the plan, working groups met to create action items that would enable the agency to incorporate TSMO concepts into the existing project development process. These groups evaluated project development activities from inception to post-letting. Based on recommendations from these groups, the agency decided to develop a TSMO Steering Committee to facilitate implementation and mature the agency's TSMO program. This committee meets quarterly to discuss TSMO progress, strategies, outreach, and more.
IowaDOT also identified ways in which TSMO activities could be included with planning efforts. IowaDOT has been working to shift the focus from infrastructure and capacity projects to operational projects and integrate these operational improvements into a five-year construction program. This construction program will facilitate integration of TSMO strategies into project construction without the need to generate funding for TSMO-specific projects. They have also identified modifications to long-range planning efforts for future inclusion of TSMO concepts. The resultant long-range planning diagram to be implemented in the future is shown in Figure 6. Inclusion of TSMO concepts to existing long-range plan development will enable the agency to identify cost-efficient solutions to mitigate challenges in the short-term, allowing previously allocated funds to be distributed to other long-term efforts.
Figure 6. Diagram. TSMO Long Range Planning Diagram
Source: Transportation Systems Management and Operations Program Plan, IowaDOT, February 2016.
IowaDOT's next steps are to engage and educate other organizations in the State, such as the MPOs and regional planning associations, on the value of TSMO. As part of outreach, IowaDOT intends to work with partner agencies so that TSMO concepts and strategies are included in regional TIPs.
