AECOM team is assisting the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) in evaluating the application of Active Traffic and Demand Management (ATDM) strategies, including Managed Lanes, to address growing congestion within their major regional networks (i.e., Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Akron, Dayton, Toledo). The overall effort includes developing and applying a multi-tiered screening methodology to assess and recommend strategies; preparing an implementation plan for the selected strategies; and developing a pilot program to be implemented in the near-term.

AECOM team worked with ODOT to identify and define its goals and objectives, as well as the opportunities and constraints with respect to ATDM and managed lanes strategies. This was followed by applying the screening methodology to identify priority statewide corridors considering volume / capacity ratios, average daily traffic, truck volumes, roadway classification, population, system connectivity and employment

AECOM team is evaluating a broad range of ATDM strategies including the following: managed lanes, ramp metering, hard shoulder running (mixed traffic or bus only), truck only toll lanes, HOV lanes, variable speed harmonization, dynamic merge control, queue warning, dynamic lane assignment, etc. These strategies are being assessed with respect to the following project goals using quantitative and qualitative metrics: travel time reliability; preserving reliable capacity for the future; improving freight travel; improving transit reliability; reducing vehicle delay; financial feasibility; reducing overall vehicle hours of travel; improving person throughput; reducing overall vehicle-miles of travel; reducing personal travel time; potential for public support; and improving safety.

This paper provides an overview of how the statewide and regional travel demand models are applied at macro- and meso-simulation level to quantify the impact of these ATDM strategies to urban freeway corridors in the state of Ohio at the feasibility and planning stage of the project. The detailed traffic operations data is utilized for regional and sub-area calibration as well as developing relationships between key traffic variables to forecast travel conditions with and without one or more ATDM strategy in place.