Organizing for TSMO
Case Study 4: Culture - Changing the Culture Towards TSMO in State Departments of Transportation

Executive Summary

Transportation systems management and operations (TSMO) provides tools for transportation managers to address safety, system performance, and reliability. TSMO is "an integrated set of strategies to optimize the performance of existing infrastructure through the implementation of multimodal and intermodal, cross-jurisdictional systems, services, and projects designed to preserve capacity and improve security, safety, and reliability of the transportation system.¹" Through participation in the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) workshops, transportation agencies are working to better support TSMO programs. Deploying intelligent transportation systems (ITS), hiring internal information technology staff, and using performance measures for data-driven decisions are just a few examples of many opportunities that a TSMO program can support.

Given the varying stages of TSMO adoption and advancement, the Federal Highway Administration identified the need for case studies to provide examples of common challenges and best practices for transportation agencies to learn from each other. This is one of 12 case studies developed to support organizing for TSMO. This case study focuses on how improving the TSMO culture in an agency can support development of a TSMO program.

Five agencies that worked to improve their TSMO culture were interviewed: the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District 4 (D4), the Iowa Department of Transportation (IowaDOT), the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Each agency provided information on how they improved their TSMO culture, their lessons learned, and the next steps to continually improve these efforts. Some of the best practices identified include:

• CDOT's integration of a TSMO evaluation into existing agency processes requires staff to assess safety, operations, and ITS in project scoping. This activity has promoted agency culture by providing transparency to agency TSMO goals and objectives.
• FDOT D4's multi-discipline and multi-agency approach to integrating TSMO into existing planning and project development processes to improve TSMO culture region- wide.
• IowaDOT's educational website promotes TSMO culture for the entire State by providing access to State TSMO plans, national resources, and general education.
• MDOT's five TSMO business cases express the value of TSMO to a variety of audiences, using TSMO language that resonates with each audience respectively.
• WSDOT's educational TSMO website facilitates an enhanced TSMO culture within the agency and in partner agencies by effectively communicating the "why-when-how" of TSMO.