Run-Off-Road Collision Avoidance Countermeasures Using IVHS Countermeasures, TASK 3-Volume 1, Final Report

Due to its large size, this document has been segmented into multiple files. All files separate from this main document file are accessible from links (blue type) in the table of contents or the body of the document. Executive Summary Introduction One of the most compelling reasons for investment in Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) services is to realize a reduction in traffic congestion. Volume on America's highway network is expected to double by the year 2020 from 1.9 trillion vehicle miles traveled to about 3.8 trillion miles. A recent National Cooperative Highway Research Program study concluded that because of congestion, over 1.2 billion hours of traffic delay were being experienced annually in 37 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. The total cost in lost economic productivity due to all traffic congestion has been estimated at roughly $100 billion annually. While there is broad consensus that ITS can improve traffic flow and reduce congestion, there are very few analytical tools available to support this conclusion. To address this limitation, in 1992 the Federal Highway Administration ITS Joint Program Office (JPO) requested the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to create an analytical tool (or framework) that could be used to predict ITS impacts and to identify potential benefits of implementing Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) user services. ATMS was a logical starting point because it provides the foundation upon which other types of ITS services will evolve. An ATMS implementation will usually employ several different adaptive traffic control strategies to attain congestion mitigation and incident management. These strategies typically include synchronized freeway ramp metering, dynamic arterial signal coordination, high occupancy vehicle ramp bypasses, rapid incident response and integrated traffic management.