AASHTO Research Advisory Committee July 24, 2012 Accelerating solutions for highway safety, renewal, reliability, and capacity Innovation in Lean Times

A Brief History of SHRP 2 Role of special-purpose research programs: focused, large-scale program of limited duration Success of first SHRP: Superpave, winter maintenance SHRP 2 proposed 2001; NCHRP with matching funds from FHWA develop detailed research plans SAFETEA-LU authorized the program $218 million, 9 years, ends 3/31/15

SHRP 2 Origin & Philosophy Needs identified by State DOT and industry leaders—driven by customer-oriented goals: –Make highways safer: revolutionary change –Fix highways: address epidemic of aging infrastructure –Reduce congestion: increase physical and operational capacity Success requires non-traditional approach: –Multiple disciplines –Collaboration with non-DOT stakeholders –Portfolio: from new knowledge to practical tools to allow existing innovations to be more widely used

Four Focus Areas Safety : fielding the largest-ever naturalistic driving study to reduce crashes and save lives through understanding driver behavior Renewal : making rapid, innovative construction possible for “ordinary” projects Reliability : Providing management and technical tools to reduce congestion through operations Capacity : Systematizing collaborative decision making to achieve better, faster project decisions

Program Governance 50+ committees; 500+ members Oversight Committee –Chair: Kirk Steudle, Michigan DOT –Majority of members from state DOTs 4 Technical Coordinating Committees: –46% current and recent state DOT employees –11% other transportation agencies –17% consultants, contractors, suppliers, auto mfrs, etc. –10% federal, police, fire, other non-transportation –16% researchers –Plus FHWA, AASHTO, and other liaisons ETGs/TETGs –Transportation and non-transportation expertise

Status of Research Program: The Numbers 106 contracts to date, 37 complete, new contracts by end of 2012 Nearly all of the $218 million is committed More than 500 expert committee members More than 300 research contractors 49 reports published or in production/review 30+ web tools, databases, software apps 24+ pilots conducted with state DOTs

Safety: Strategic Rationale Driver behavior is key: –Primary factor in two-thirds of crashes –Contributing factor in more than 90% of crashes –Hardest to study; the thing we know the least about Opportunity: Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS): –Miniaturized sensor technologies & increased computing capacity: can observe real-world driving –Method proven with 100 car study at VA Tech –Crash, pre-crash, near-crash, and “normal” driving data SHRP 2 scales up NDS for more robust results –3000 drivers, 6 sites, all ages –Data to be available for other researchers for decades

Camera Image Samples 8 Source: VTTI

Safety Highlights Progress on data collection: –2,122 participants so far –384,000 trips; 5 veh-yrs of data per day –3,100 center-line miles of roadway data –Approval to collect cell phone records and “supplemental” data First four analysis projects begun Interest in using data from outside of SHRP 2 (FHWA, NHTSA, auto mfrs, academics, IIHS, AAA FTS, etc.)

10 Initial Analysis Projects Rural 2-lane curves – Iowa State University –Ex. App : more cost-effective roadway measures to prevent crashes Offset left-turn bays – MRI Global –Ex. App: cost-effective intersection design Driver inattention – SAFER, Chalmers Univ. –Ex. App: vehicle technology to track driver attention, warn distracted drivers Crashes on congested freeways – U. of MN –Ex. App: effective methods to warn drivers of downstream congestion

Renewal: Strategic Rationale Facilities are aging, users depend on them: –Renew infrastructure quickly –Have minimal impact on users –Produce long-lasting facilities We know how to do this—on special projects What keeps us from doing it consistently across the system? –Lack of standard methods, specs –Lack of reliable performance/usage information –Human/institutional challenges SHRP 2 seeks to overcome these obstacles

Renewal Highlights Vermont Transportation Agency piloting ABC tools in repair of bridges damaged in Tropical Storm Irene—building local expertise Illinois Tollway saving $350,000 using a modular pavement technology & guidelines from SHRP 2 WSDOT used SHRP 2 interactive design guide to select rehab strategy for segment of I-5: saved 30% on agency costs, 50% on user costs DOT/RR Community of Interest to share/update model agreements & best practices (7 SDOTs, 4 Class I RRs, AASHTO, Rail America, FHWA, FRA, and Manitoba Infrastructure Transportation)

Capacity tackles recurring congestion Reliability tackles nonrecurring congestion Reliability & Capacity

Reliability Strategic Rationale Non-recurring events account for more than half of congestion –Impact of these events on users is reduced travel time reliability (TTR) –TTR is valuable to users –TTR is a good tool to measure performance and develop and target improvements What do we need to effectively use TTR? –Ways to measure and monitor TTR –Integration of TTR into modeling, planning, programming, and design. –Ops-oriented business practices, training

Reliability Highlights Multi-agency incident response training very well- received; FHWA using SHRP 2 material in an effort to train 1 million responders Assessment tool and guide to becoming an operation-oriented agency has been incorporated into AASHTO SSOM web tool. Special session at AASHTO Board of Directors on benefits of operations and availability of resources for states Easy-to-use spreadsheet to assess effect of design on delay and TTR, including benefit/cost

Capacity Strategic Rationale Sometimes you just need more highway Why don’t we get it when we need it? –Multiple independent decision points that must collectively satisfy a range of goals: engineering, economic, environmental, community –Decisions to be “lost” or revisited, which can cause opposition and delay Facilitate and expedite key decisions: get the right information to the right people at the right time, avoid re-do loops

Capacity Highlights 8 pilot tests of tools in real projects: –Web tool-guide for collaborative decision-making –Integrated approach to resource conservation, impact mitigation, expedited project delivery Building foundation in freight area: –Demand modeling & data improvement strategic plan – Workshop on potential uses of private supply chain data –2 modeling & data innovations symposia, awards

Research to Implementation 18 Research responds to known transportation challenges A research product emerges and is refined through pilots and other activities Potential implementation explored through knowledge transfer Partner agencies select, prioritize, and prepare product for implementation Product is marketed to users and integrated into standard practice Research DevelopmentImplementation

Development requires close collaboration with users to ensure that innovations work in real-world situations.