Active traffic management is a hot topic for addressing issues of highway congestion. It is the use of intelligent transportation systems to provide real time traffic information on highway conditions. In Austin, the segment of Interstate 35 between Riverside Drive and State Highway 71 experiences both congestion and safety issues. This report provides an introduction into the application of active traffic management through the use of a proposed queue warning system in the area. First, select crash data on the region is highlighted to present the safety conditions, particularly the type of collision and crash severity involved. Next, a proposed queue warning system design is described. This includes a description of the equipment used, methodology for system deployment, and expected outcomes. Finally, a computer simulation testing the operational performance of the queue warning system is performed using VISSIM, and the results are reported. This report aims to demonstrate the role that queue warning system and active traffic management may play in addressing metropolitan traffic needs.

Active Traffic Management (ATM) strategies are being deployed in major cities worldwide to deal with pervasive system congestion and safety concerns. While such strategies include a diverse array of components, in the Twin Cities metropolitan area the deployment of the Intelligent Lane Control Signs (ILCS) allowed for the implementation of Variable Speed Limits (VSL). The VSL system in the Twin Cities aims to detect congestion and preemptively warn upstream drivers to reduce speed. By reducing the severe change in speed between upstream and downstream traffic, safety and operational benefits are sought. This report presents an investigation of the effect the I-94 VSL system has on the safety of the high frequency crash area located on the westbound lanes of the freeway through downtown Minneapolis (I-94/I-35W commons). This report describes several methodologies that were used to examine the impact of the VSL system within the I-94/I-35W commons high crash area. Numerous data sources were utilized, including video records of crash and near crash events, loop detector traffic measurements, machine vision sensor data, and actuations from the VSL system. A before-after approach was taken to examine the incident rates for crashes and near crashes using visually identified events within video data. Utilizing the unique capabilities of the Minnesota Traffic Observatory's I-94 Freeway Lab, high resolution traffic measurements, collected by machine vision sensors at the bottleneck location, were used within a new cross-correlation based analysis methodology to measure and visualize shockwave activity before and after the implementation of the VSL system.

Congested roads waste commuters' time, cost them money, and degrade the environment. Most Americans agree that traffic congestion is the major problem in their communities—and it only seems to be getting worse. In this revised and expanded edition of his landmark work Stuck in Traffic, Anthony Downs examines the benefits and costs of various anticongestion strategies. Drawing on a significant body of research by transportation experts and land-use planners, he counters environmentalists and road lobbyists alike by explaining why seemingly simple solutions, such as expanding public transit or expanding roads, have unintended consequences that cancel out their apparent advantages. He argues that while there might be some measurable gains from increasing housing densities, most other land-use strategies have little effect. Indeed, the most powerful solutions, including higher gasoline taxes, increased public funding for transit, and highway tolls, are also the least palatable politically. St ill Stuck in Traffic contains new material on the causes of congestion, its dynamics, and its relative incidence in various parts of the country. In clear and realistic terms, Downs seeks to explore why traffic congestion has become part of modern American life and how it can be kept under control.