The Hampton Roads Congestion Management Process (CMP) is an on-going systematic process for managing congestion that provides information and analysis on multimodal transportation system performance and on strategies to alleviate congestion and enhance the mobility of persons and goods regionwide.  During this process, HRTPO staff works with state and local agencies to develop these strategies and mobility options. 

HRTPO staff is in the process of updating the CMP report.  The 2020 CMP report will include a thorough assessment of the roadway system in Hampton Roads, a regional roadway network congestion analysis, a ranking of the most congested corridors, and a list of congestion mitigation strategies and recommended improvements for the congested corridors.  The 2020 CMP will also provide data and a list of candidate projects for consideration in the 2045 LRTP Project Prioritization Process.

The 2020 Hampton Roads CMP Report is being released in three parts:

•   Part I – Introduction and System Monitoring (Released in May 2020)

•   Part II – System Performance

•   Part III – Congestion Mitigation

HRTPO has recently released the draft version of Part II of the CMP Report, which includes information related to System Performance.  The System Performance section of the CMP report provides a thorough assessment of the current operating conditions of the Hampton Roads roadway system, particularly during peak periods of travel.  The performance of roadway segments throughout the region are analyzed using travel time and speed data collected by INRIX and through a planning level analysis for roadways without this data.  INRIX collects travel times and speeds on a continuous basis, which enables numerous congestion measures to be reported, such as average travel speeds, congestion duration, total delay, and travel time reliability.

As part of this CMP report, HRTPO staff determined the Existing (2018) AM and PM Peak Period congestion levels for the entire regional CMP Roadway Network.  The congestion levels during the PM Peak Period are shown in the maps below.  During the PM Peak Period, all but three of the top 25 most congested freeway segments in the region are at or approaching high profile locations including the Downtown Tunnel, Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, High Rise Bridge, or I-64/I-264 Interchange.  The top four most congested arterial segments during the PM Peak Period are Fourth View Street, Mallory Street, Settlers Landing Road, and Woodland Road, all of which are approaches to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. 

Existing (2018) Congestion Levels – PM Peak Period
Source:  HRTPO analysis of INRIX and VDOT data.

HRTPO staff used the roadway segment congestion analysis to calculate existing congestion levels on a regional basis.  As shown below, 275 of the 4,991 lane-miles (6%) in the Hampton Roads CMP Roadway Network currently operate under severely congested conditions during the AM Peak Period. Another 520 lane-miles (10%) operate under acceptable but moderately congested conditions, while the remaining 4,196 lane-miles (84%) have low levels of congestion.

A much higher percentage of the CMP Roadway Network is congested during the PM Peak Period than during the AM Peak Period. A total of 687 of the 4,991 lane-miles (14%) currently operate under severely congested conditions during the PM Peak Period. Another 711 lane-miles (14%) operate under moderately congested conditions, and the remaining 3,593 lane-miles (72%) are roadways that operate with low levels of congestion.

In addition to analyzing regional congestion levels by lane-mile, which is a measure of the physical roadway system, HRTPO staff also analyzed regional congestion levels by daily vehicle-miles of travel (VMT), which is a measure of the total amount of travel.  This measure represents the congestion experienced by travelers throughout the region each weekday.  As shown below, 11% of the VMT in the AM Peak Period and 20% of the VMT in the PM Peak Period occur in severely congested conditions.

By Lane Miles	By Vehicle Miles of Travel (VMT)

Existing (2018) Congestion Levels by Lane-Mile and Vehicle-Miles of Travel for the CMP Roadway Network
Source:  HRTPO analysis of INRIX and VDOT data.
Figure only include those CMP network roadways within the Hampton Roads MPA.

With so many congested locations in Hampton Roads, HRTPO staff used additional criteria to rank and differentiate the most critical corridors in the region as part of this CMP analysis.  Five factors were included in the “CMP Segment Scoring Criteria”:

• Congestion (including level of congestion, total delay, and congestion duration)
• Travel Time Reliability
• Freight (including truck volumes, total truck delay, and truck travel time reliability)
• Safety
• Roadway Type

Once CMP Segment Scores were calculated for each roadway segment in the region, adjacent high scoring segments were grouped into corridors for analysis purposes.  The top ranked CMP Congested Corridors throughout the region are shown in the tables below.  Most of the highest-rated CMP Congested Corridors will be examined in detail in Part III of this report to determine possible countermeasures to alleviate congestion.

Top Ranked CMP Congested Corridors

The Hampton Roads Congestion Management Process 2020 Update: Part II – System Performance Report is available for public review and comment and can be accessed by clicking on the following link:

Part II – System Performance Report

All interested parties are encouraged to review the draft report and send comments to Mr. Keith Nichols at knichols@hrtpo.org.  The deadline for comments on this draft report is September 25, 2020.