A Nationwide Evaluation of the State of Practice of Performance Measurements for Intelligent Transportation Systems

State departments of transportation’s (DOTs) decisions to invest resources to expand or implement intelligent transportation systems (ITS) programs or even retire existing infrastructure need to be based on performance evaluations. Nonetheless, an apparent gap exists between the need for ITS performance measurements and the actual implementation. The evidence available points to challenges in the ITS performance measurement processes. This paper evaluated the state of practice of performance measurement for ITS across the US and provided insights. A comprehensive literature review assessed the use of performance measures by DOTs for monitoring implemented ITS programs. Based on the gaps identified through the literature review, a nationwide qualitative survey was used to gather insights from key stakeholders on the subject matter and presented in this paper. From the data gathered, performance measurement of ITS is fairly integrated into ITS programs by DOTs, with most agencies considering the process beneficial. There, however, exist reasons that prevent agencies from measuring ITS performance to greater detail and quality. These include lack of data, fragmented or incomparable data formats, the complexity of the endeavor, lack of data scientists, and difficulty assigning responsibilities when inter-agency collaboration is required. Additionally, DOTs do not benchmark or compare their ITS performance with others for reasons that include lack of data, lack of guidance or best practices, and incomparable data formats. This paper is relevant as it provides insights expected to guide DOTs and other agencies in developing or reevaluating their ITS performance measurement processes.

Making Data-Driven Transportation Decisions for Freight Operations

Using Louisiana’s Interstate system, this paper aims to demonstrate how data can be used to evaluate freight movement reliability, economy, and safety of truck freight operations to improve decision-making. Data mainly from the National Performance Management Research Data Set (NPMRDS) and the Louisiana Crash Database were used to analyze Truck Travel Time Reliability Index, commercial vehicle User Delay Costs, and commercial vehicle safety. The results indicate that while Louisiana’s Interstate system remained reliable over the years, some segments were found to be unreliable, which were annually less than 12% of the state’s Interstate system mileage. The User Delay Costs by commercial vehicles on these unreliable segments were, on average, 65.45% of the User Delay Cost by all vehicles on the Interstate highway system between 2016 and 2019, 53.10% between 2020 and 2021, and 70.36% in 2022, which are considerably high. These disproportionate ratios indicate the economic impact of the unreliability of the Interstate system on commercial vehicle operations. Additionally, though the annual crash frequencies remained relatively constant, an increasing proportion of commercial vehicles are involved in crashes, with segments (mileposts) that have high crash frequencies seeming to correspond with locations with recurring congestion on the Interstate highway system. The study highlights the potential of using data to identify areas that need improvement in transportation systems to support better decision-making.