Morris, Paul

Planning and environmental studies involving managed lanes still have difficulty determining how to effectively evaluate project alternatives from an equity perspective. To most people, “equity” is ubiquitous with income, but this is a narrow focus that limits the scope of what can be considered equity, and indeed this can be true when it comes to managed lanes. As the Minnesota Department of Transportation analyzes the expansion of E-ZPass corridors, it is imperative it evaluates project alternatives from an equity perspective. The results of this study suggest that E-ZPass lane users are more racially diverse than users in the travelsheds. In two out of the four E-ZPass lane corridors, a higher proportion of E-ZPass lane users have household incomes below $100,000 compared to the travelsheds. Overall, there is a lower percentage of people with disabilities among E-ZPass lane users than those in the travelsheds. These results are driven by the makeup of E-ZPass lane users. In addition, this research project demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating quantitative and qualitative equity measures into the alternatives analysis process. The demonstration shows that the quantitative measures are all feasible with existing tools, provide meaningful information to the alternatives analysis process, and can be put into practice immediately.

The Tipping Point – What COVID-19 Travel Reduction Tells Us About Effective Congestion Relief uses observed data collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Twin Cities metropolitan area to answer a question with important implications for highway investment planning and travel demand management: At what level of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) does congestion significantly decline or disappear? The study pursues this question through a series of statistical analyses identifying inflection points in the relationship between regional VMT and congestion. The study also looks at the relationship between VMT and congestion at the corridor level to assess the sensitivity of congestion on specific roadways to changes in travel demand. This analysis categorizes Twin Cities freeways based on congestion frequency, highlighting the corridors expected to become congestion free as VMT declines and the corridors expected to remain congested.

A refined return on investment (ROI) methodology is explored to supplement existing benefit-cost analysis (BCA) tools; data; and methodologies available to evaluate MnPASS managed lane projects. This would also facilitate more consistent and standardized measures for MnPASS system assessment and comparison. In this study; researchers investigated a more comprehensive set of factors; variables; and perspectives to include within the refined ROI analysis framework based on the limitations summarized in the current MnPASS BCA methodology; the major concerns identified from agency staff interviews; and available data resources. The selected cost components included initial capital costs; annual operating and maintenance costs; remaining capital value; and the potential benefit components consisted of travel time savings; vehicle operating cost savings; safety benefits; travel time reliability; transit benefit; induced traffic; emergency response; emissions impacts; and noise impacts. Tractable calculation methods were further explored for each cost and benefit measurement in order to facilitate use of the economic analysis tool. To verify the performance of the proposed methodology; the research team conducted a comparative demonstration; which produced a higher benefit-cost ratio than previous work. Furthermore; the contributions from additional benefit considerations highlighted the importance of integrating a wider range of project impact categories in the MnPASS ROI analyses.

This project was divided into three phases. In phase 1 ten fatal run-off-road crashes were reconstructed from crash scene diagrams and investigation reports. We found evidence of excessive speed in five of these, and a failure to properly use seatbelts eight of the ten. For seven of these we found that barriers complying with Test Level 3 of NCHRP Report 350 would probably have stopped the crashing vehicle's encroachment. In phase 2 we developed a vehicle trajectory simulation model and used it reconstruct five fatal median-crossing crashes. We found clear evidence of excessive speed in one of these, and in three of the five the encroaching vehicle would probably have been restrained by Test Level 3-compliant barriers. In phase 3 five teams of traffic safety professionals reviewed accident reports from a sample of fatal rural crashes, with the aim of identifying possible causal factors and potential countermeasures. The most frequently identified causal factors were driver inexperience and failure to properly use restraints, while provision of rumble strips, improvements to roadsides or cross-slopes, and provision of guardrails or barriers were the most frequently-cited countermeasures.