Keith Nichols, Senior Transportation Engineer

The Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) has completed the Draft Hampton Roads Regional Travel Time/Speed Study report.

In recent years, new technologies have been created that collect travel time and speed data on a continuous basis.  One source of such data, INRIX, provides real-time and historical travel time and speed data on an extensive statewide roadway network.  HRTPO staff has used this archived data to determine roadway congestion levels based on actual travel times and speeds rather than the current method of estimating congestion levels based on traffic volumes and roadway characteristics.  In addition, HRTPO staff has analyzed the duration of congestion, by roadway segment, with this data. 

This report details HRTPO’s analysis of the travel time and speed data that was collected by INRIX for the year 2010.  This data will help HRTPO with its Congestion Management Process (CMP), which monitors regional roadway congestion and assists with the selection of projects for the Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) and Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). 

Click Here to view a copy of the draft document.  The appendices for the report are also available here.

All interested parties are encouraged to review the draft report and send comments to Mr. Keith Nichols at knichols@hrpdcva.gov or by mail to 723 Woodlake Drive, Chesapeake, Virginia 23320. The deadline for comments on this draft report is March 21st, 2012.

By: Sam Belfield
Senior Transportation Engineer

The HRTPO continues to receive input from military commuters since releasing a public transportation survey on November 8, 2011.  As of January 26, 2012, approximately 9,180 survey responses have been received.

The HRTPO is collecting information about the commuting experience of military personnel (active-duty, civilians, contractors, reservists and others) traveling to/from the region’s military bases.  The survey was developed by the HRTPO, in concert with the Commands from the region’s military installations and various transportation stakeholders. It is designed to identify and determine the challenges local military personnel and military-related commuters routinely face during their daily commutes.

The survey will remain open to local military commuters until February 20, 2012.  The survey results will be summarized and reported to the HRTPO board, local transit agencies, local governments, VDOT, and military officials in an effort to improve military travel in our region.

By Benito O. Pérez
HRTPO Transportation Engineer

Many people in Hampton Roads are reliant on the car for their livelihood. Whether it is to go to work, to shop, or to run to the beach in the summer, the majority of people in Hampton Roads rely on the auto to get them there. In fact, in 2010, 80.9% of Hampton Roads residents relied on the auto to get to work. This represents a 2.5% increase since 2000 (Source: US Census Bureau).
 
There are various modes of public transportation available as alternatives to the car in the Hampton Roads region. Public transportation in Hampton Roads includes:

From this array of transit services available in Hampton Roads, there are approximately 1.6 million passenger trips monthly across the regional public transportation system in 2010 (Source: National Transit Database).

As part of a larger national study, Bradley Lane of the University of Texas at El Paso conducted research exploring the relationship between fuel prices and transit ridership. Lane notes in his research, ‘[For] every 10 percent increase in fuel costs led to an increase in bus ridership of up to 4 percent, and a spike in rail travel of up to 8 percent. These results suggest a "significant untapped potential" for transit ridership.’

Evaluating fuel prices and transit ridership trends in Hampton Roads from January 2005 through October 2011, similar results to the Lane study can be found. As fuel prices rose 129% between January 2005 and July 2008, transit ridership increased 50%. Similarly, as fuel prices dropped 60% between July and December 2008, transit ridership decreased 20% in the same period.

Source: Federal Transit Administration National Transit Database
Source: AAA Fuel Gauge Report

As per Eric Jaffe's reporting in The Atlantic, Lane's analysis revealed two key relationships between gas prices and transit ridership. The first is what he calls an elasticity, which is essentially a behavioral response to an event. In this case the event is a change in gas prices, and the response is a shift in transit ridership. The second is what he calls a "lagged effect." That means that some elasticities — such as switching your commute from car to train — don't appear until several months after the initial change in fuel cost.

By Robert B. Case, PE

In response to a request from VDOT, in December HRTPO staff collaborated with the HRTPO’s Transportation Technical Advisory Committee (TTAC) to identify candidate projects for FY 2012 discretionary grant programs. On December 12, 2011, HRTPO staff submitted a letter to VDOT identifying projects to be considered by VDOT for submission under these grant programs, including a “Regional Value Pricing Study” and a “HOT Lane Study on I-64 Reversible HOV Lanes”.
 
On December 15, 2011, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) presented a webinar titled “Update on the Urban Partnership and Congestion Reduction Demonstration Projects” as part of its webinar series: “Overcoming the Challenges of Congestion Pricing.”  Given that Hampton Roads has HOV lanes which may be candidates for being converted into High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes, the “lessons learned” from the webinar are summarized below.

The first speaker, Kathy McCune, presented an update on the “Metro ExpressLanes”, a conversion of 25 miles of HOV lanes in Los Angeles to High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes.  She presented lessons learned including:
• “A Political Champion is a must”
• “Engage the public early…and often…”
• “A multi-modal approach increases public acceptance”
• “Address equity issues early in the planning process”

For more information, see http://www.metro.net/projects/expresslanes/

The second speaker, Jay Primus, presented an update on “SFpark”, a parking management project in San Francisco.  The goals of the project is to achieve the following transportation objectives:

• Relieve congestion
• Increase usage of public transit
• Increase economic competiveness
• Increase safety
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The project uses current communications technologies (web, smartphone apps) and demand responsive parking rates to achieve these objectives.  Initial results include increased revenue from parking meters and a reduction in revenue from parking tickets.
See http://sfpark.org/ for more information.

The third speaker, Rory Santana, presented an update on “95 Express Lanes Program”, a conversion of HOV lanes in the Miami / Ft. Lauderdale area to HOT lanes.  He reported a customer satisfaction rating of 90% or higher.  Based on the results of the project, he recommended selling reliability to the public, not speed improvement alone.

For more information, see http://www.95express.com/

The fourth speaker, Patrick Vu, presented an update on Atlanta’s I-85 Express Lanes, another HOV to HOT lane conversion.  His lessons learned included:

• “Anticipate/expect traffic pattern changes”
• “Collection of key performance metrics”- before and after data
• “Message coordination and addressing public response”- include radio traffic personalities
See www.PeachPass.com for more information.

The fifth speaker, Kenneth Buckeye, presented an update on “Minnesota’s Urban Partnership Agreement” which is funding 24 projects and initiatives, including an HOV to HOT lane conversion in the Minneapolis area.  His lessons learned included:

• “Clear decision-making authority and assignment of responsibilities…”
• “Real and meaningful deadlines…”
• “Multimodal solutions work”
• “Must continue to market strategies and performance”

For more information, see www.dot.state.mn.us/upa 

The sixth speaker, Patty Rubstello, presented an update on the Lake Washington Urban Partnership Agreement, which includes the tolling and replacement of an existing bridge and the addition of over 130 new daily bus trips in the Seattle area.  Lessons learned include:

• “Coordinate early with FHWA on sign messages”
• “Education- Lots of it!”
• “…something to sell”- replacement of existing vulnerable floating bridge
See http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/LkWaMgt/ for more information.

The next webinar in the Congestion Pricing series will be held February 23, 2012.

By: Sam Belfield
Senior Transportation Engineer

The Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) is seeking the participation of commuters travelling to/from all military installations in Hampton Roads in a transportation survey.

The HRTPO is collecting information about the commuting experience of military personnel (active-duty, civilians, contractors, reservists and others) travelling to/from the region’s military bases.  The survey was developed by the HRTPO, in concert with the Commands from the region’s military installations and various transportation stakeholders. It is designed to identify and determine the challenges local military personnel and military-related commuters routinely face during their daily commutes.

The survey can be found on the homepage of the HRTPO’s website (http://www.hrtpo.org) and takes about 5-10 minutes to complete, depending upon web connection speeds. Click on the HRTPO Military Commuter Survey button below, or visit, http://www.hrtpo.org/MilitaryCommuterSurvey.asp

Survey collection is currently underway and will be open to military commuters from November 8, 2011 until February 20, 2012.  The survey results will be summarized and passed on to the HRTPO board, local transit agencies, local governments, VDOT, and other decision-makers in an effort to improve military travel in our region.

By Keith Nichols
Senior Transportation Engineer

The Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University (TTI) recently released the 2011 Congested Corridors Report, which documents the most congested freeway corridors throughout the country.  The data used in the report was collected in 2010 by Inrix from GPS-enabled vehicles traveling throughout the United States, including taxis, shuttles, trucks, and delivery vans.

Based on the criteria that these most congested corridors must be congested for 3 or more miles at least 4 hours each week, a total of 328 directional freeway corridors across the nation made their list.  In Hampton Roads, two corridors made TTI's most congested corridors list:  The Eastbound Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Westbound Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.
 
TTI not only looked at those corridors that have the most congestion but also those corridors that are the most unreliable, meaning that the congestion levels vary significantly from day to day.  This is based on a measure called the Buffer Index, which takes into account the extra amount of time a person must build into their schedule to nearly guarantee that they'll make it to their destination on time.  TTI also calculated congestion levels based on the Travel Time Index, which compares how long trips take during the most congested periods of the day versus uncongested conditions.

The Eastbound Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel ranked as one of the most unreliable congested facilities in the nation, with the fifth highest Buffer Index in the country according to the report.  The Travel Time Index for the Eastbound Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel was also high at 1.89, which means that the average trip taken at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel during rush hour takes 89% longer than the same trip takes during uncongested times of the day.  This Travel Time Index ranked 98th highest in the country.

In the Westbound direction, the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel was more congested than the Eastbound direction, but was also more reliable.  The Westbound Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel had the 54th highest Buffer Index in the country in 2010, but was the 80th most congested corridor in the country with a Travel Time Index of 1.96.

More information on the 2011 Congested Corridors Report is available on TTI's website at http://mobility.tamu.edu/corridors.

Keith Nichols, Senior Transportation Engineer

The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University recently released the 2011 Urban Mobility Report.  This report, which includes data through 2010, details traffic congestion in 101 metropolitan areas throughout the United States including Hampton Roads.
 
According to the Urban Mobility Report, each person who commutes to work by automobile in Hampton Roads spent an average of 34 hours stuck in congestion in 2010.  This is up from 32 hours in 2009 but is down from the middle of the last decade, when Hampton Roads commuters annually spent more than 40 hours stuck in congestion.  According to the report, this decrease is common throughout the country and is largely attributable to the impacts of the economic downturn.

Hampton Roads has a higher level of congestion than many other metropolitan areas according to the report.  Among 31 comparable large metropolitan areas throughout the United States with populations between one and three million people, Hampton Roads had the 10th highest delay per auto commuter in 2010. This delay has a cost in terms of lost time, wasted fuel, and impacts on commercial vehicles.  According to TTI, congestion cost the Hampton Roads region a total of $693 million in 2010, or an average of $654 for each person that commutes to work by automobile.

For more information on the TTI Urban Mobility Report, please visit the Urban Mobility Report website at http://mobility.tamu.edu.

By Benito O. Pérez
HRTPO Transportation Engineer

Times are tough in Hampton Roads, as in America. Families are looking to stretch their hard earned dollars to maintain a quality level of life. When it comes to transportation though, cutting costs and evaluating other mobility options by families can be a complicated task.

There is help!

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has made available a Transit Savings Calculator. The calculator provides a resource to easily calculate whether you can get a bang for your buck driving to work or hopping on a bus to work. Assuming the average fuel efficiency in cars in America plus the average round-trip commute, fuel costs, parking costs and transit fares in Hampton Roads, a driver can save over $400 annually switching to transit. The calculator can be accessed on APTA's website here. Additionally, switching to transit is environmentally friendly, with the potential to remove approximately 100 pounds of carbon emissions weekly for the average Hampton Roads driver. More information on calculating your commute's footprint and how transit can lessen it can be found here.

Bike Metro, a biking resource in Southern California, has also made available a Bike Savings Calculator that can help decide whether to take two versus four wheels to work. Under similar commuting attributes considered for transit savings in Hampton Roads, a single driver switching to a bike can anticipate over $600 in monthly savings. More information on calculating biking cost benefits can be found here. As with transit, biking shares similar environmental benefits, plus has the added health benefits to the user.

Not sure where to start in altering your single occupancy commute in Hampton Roads? TRAFFIX, a cooperative public service designed to promote transportation alternatives can help. TRAFFIX helps users get information on public transportation options, connect to carpools and vanpools, provides a guaranteed ride home program, rewards users for alternative commuting, and provides resources to setup telework from your employer. More information on TRAFFIX can be found here.