Highway Planning and Operations for the Dallas District

Highway Planning and Operations for the Dallas District
Author: John C. Brunk
Publisher:
Total Pages: 54
Release: 1997
Genre: Express highways
ISBN:

The System Planning Methodology was developed jointly by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), and Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) as a transportation corridor and system analysis tool that would bridge the gap between regional planning and detailed corridor design. It allows for the examination of peak hour person movement for different facility types within a corridor and estimates associated public costs (e.g., right-of-way, construction, operation, congestion, and environmental costs). The objective of the methodology is to find the lowest total public cost alternative. This project extends the methodology to include costs associated with traffic incidents (nonrecurrent congestion) and tests the results on five corridors in the Dallas area to determine if it alters the recommended alternative previously identified for each corridor. It also adds toll lanes and high occupancy/toll lanes (HOT) as alternatives that can be evaluated against other combinations of general purpose lanes, high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, and express lanes.

Highway Planning and Operations for the Dallas District

Highway Planning and Operations for the Dallas District
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 52
Release: 1997
Genre: High occupancy vehicle lanes
ISBN:

Limited capital investment for major transportation improvements and growth in metropolitan areas require the most efficient use of the existing transportation system. One means to achieve this is high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. While an extensive system of permanent HOV lanes is planned for the Dallas-Fort Worth urbanized area, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) have pursued and continue to pursue short-term or interim HOV lane projects that would enhance public transportation and overall mobility. There are currently 57 km (35.4 mi) of interim HOV lanes operationalin the Dallas area, including a barrier separated contraflow lane on I-30 (East R.L. Thornton Freeway) and buffer-separated concurrent flow HOV lanes on I-35E North (Stemmons Freeway) and I-635 (Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway). The objective of this research is to investigate the operational effectiveness of the new concurrent flow HOV lanes in the Dallas area, as well as to assess the effectiveness of concurrent flow (buffer-separated) versus contraflow (barrier-separated) HOV lanes. Issues such as person movement, carpool formation, travel time savings, violation rates, and project cost effectiveness are addressed. By understanding the operational performance and issues of both concurrent flow (buffer-separated) HOV lanes and contraflow (barrier-separated) HOV lanes, recommendations can be made on suggested HOV lane policies, including the type of permanent HOV lanes to be implemented in the Dallas area.

Dallas Area-wide Intelligent Transportation System Plan

Dallas Area-wide Intelligent Transportation System Plan
Author: James D. Carvell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 202
Release: 1996
Genre: Express highways
ISBN:

This report documents the development of a comprehensive plan for implementation of Intelligent Transportation Systems in the Dallas area. Objectives, findings, and recommendations are summarized as follows: 1. Develop a Broadly Based Steering Committee - A committee was formed with representatives from various transportation-related agencies including ten cities, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Dallas County, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, North Central Texas Council of Governments, FHWA, universities, several consultants, and other private sector companies. 2. Assess Existing TMS and Potential ITS Technology - An inventory of existing traffic management systems and transportation facilities was compiled. Thirty of the cities in the study area were surveyed to determine incident management procedures and to identify particular problems or needs. 3. Identify Institutional Issues and Legal Barriers - A workshop was held to examine any potential institutional issues which might be barriers to area-wide traffic management. It was generally agreed that a regional concept was essential, but not necessarily as a regional control center. The cities still wanted to have control of traffic management within their particular jurisdiction but were open to cooperative operation for incident conditions across city limit lines. Under incident conditions, predetermined, jointly developed signal timing plans would be called for from a Dallas Area Transportation Management Center (DATMC). 4. Develop an Implementable, Area-Wide Multi-Jurisdictional ITS Plan - Projects are defined for both freeway and surface street systems. Included are ATMS, ATIS, APTS, AVSS (AVCS), and CVO elements and their interaction. The DATMC will be operated by TxDOT but with sharing of video images and traffic data among the various operating issues over a wide-area network. Since a communications backbone network will not be in place for some time, much of the CCTV system will initially be in compressed video format transmitted over leased ISDN lines. The recommended plan reflects both State and National Architecture efforts. 5. Develop Costs, Benefits, and an Implementation Plan - Costs, benefits, and a staged implementation plan were developed and emphasize near-term improvements to incident management procedures, mobility assistance patrol upgrades, and other ITS elements. A medium- and long-term implementation plan is specified. A benefit:cost ratio of 17:1 was estimated for the recommended plan.