Transportation Mgmt. & Studies
TRANSPORTATION & SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
Safety Management
Road Safety Audits
A Road Safety Audit (RSA) is the formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent, multidisciplinary team, typically comprised of planners, engineers, public safety, and local and state officials. It qualitatively estimates and reports on potential road safety issues and identifies opportunities for improvements in safety for all road users. Many of these improvements are often relatively low cost and can be implemented quickly. Old Colony Planning Council has completed Road Safety Audits for dozens of locations throughout the region and has incorporated the RSA process into he MPO’s Local Highway Technical Assistance Program.
Vision Zero
Old Colony Planning Council incorporates Vision Zero planning as an umbrella concept across all of its transportation planning programs and tasks. Vision Zero planning is a systematic approach to transportation safety planning that sets a goal of eliminating fatal and incapacitating injuries from roadway traffic crashes. Through planning, engineering, and technology, no fatality or incapacitating injury from a preventable roadway crash is acceptable. Vision Zero Planning seeks to address the issue of road traffic safety and provide cities and towns in the Commonwealth with a starting point for eliminating deaths and severe injury from crashes.
Performance Based Planning Safety Targets
Performance-based planning and programming applies performance management principles to transportation system policy and investment decisions, providing a link between management and long-range decisions about policies and investments that an agency makes in its transportation system. Performance-based planning and programming is a system-level, data-driven process to identify strategies and investments. Long-range planning helps to define key goals and objectives and to analyze and evaluate strategies and scenarios for meeting goals. Connecting performance measures to goals and objectives through target setting provides a basis for understanding and sharing information with stakeholders and the public. The 2012 Federal transportation legislation Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21 st Century Act (MAP-21) require states and metropolitan planning organizations to incorporate performance-based planning and establish performance targets. The Old Colony MPO has opted to adopt the Commonwealth’s safety performance targets, which are adjusted annually based on a data driven process. Performance targets are set for fatalities (overall total), rate of fatalities per 100 million Vehicular Miles Traveled (VMT), incapacitating injuries (overall total), rate of incapacitating injuries per 100 million VMT, and total number of combined incapacitating injuries and fatal injuries for non-motorized travel (bicycle and pedestrian).
Congestion Management
The purpose of the Old Colony Congestion Management Process (CMP) is to identify congested locations; determine the causes of congestion; develop alternative strategies to mitigate congestion; evaluate the potential of different mitigation strategies; propose alternative strategies that best address the causes and impacts of congestion; and track and evaluate the impact of previously implemented congestion management strategies. The Old Colony CMP is intended to be an integral part of the metropolitan planning process, rather than a stand-alone process or system. Towards this end, OCPC staff engage in data collection, corridor studies, travel time analysis, congestion simulation and the analysis of transit data.
The Congestion Management Process follows the process model outlined by the Federal Highway Administration in their Congestion Management Process: A Guidebook. The Process Model presented by the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration is built upon eight actions that are common to successful Congestion Management Processes. These actions, like the overall Congestion Management Process, are not stand alone actions but rather built into the entire transportation planning process and incorporated in MPO products such as the Long Range Transportation Plan, the Transportation Improvement Program, and the Unified Planning Work Program.
Pavement Management
The Pavement Management System (PMS) for federal-aid eligible roads was developed in conformance with federal guidelines. The federal aid eligible roads fall into two main funding categories; the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STBG) and the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP). The PMS involves evaluating sections of federally-aided roadway for specific deterioration and hazard criteria and using these field evaluations to calculate a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) score using pavement management software. The PCI score determines the overall condition of the roadway: Excellent (PCI 95 or higher), Good (PCI 94-85), Fair (PCI 84-65), and Poor (PCI 64 or lower). Based on the PCI, pavement management system derives recommended levels of repair for the roadway, along with the estimated cost for repair.
The PMS repair and maintenance strategies fall under five general default strategies. These include:
TRANSPORTATION STUDIES
Corridor & Bottleneck Studies
The Transportation Department conducts transportation planning studies and other initiatives in the areas of transportation safety, roadway and traffic conditions, congestion management, bicycle and pedestrian planning, transit planning, and transportation resilience planning. The following are examples of corridor studies.
2020: Brockton Main Street Corridor Study
The Main Street Brockton Corridor Study provides an assessment of the transportation and safety operations within the corridor (approximately 5.2 miles) and includes short term and long-term recommended improvements. The recommendations from the study include improvements and strategies to improve circulation, traffic flow, safety, and bicycle and pedestrian accommodation. The Main Street corridor study area begins at the Brockton City Line/West Bridgewater Town Line, and concludes on North Main Street at the Brockton City Line/Avon Town Line. The study development included public participation outreach as part of the process, including public presentations, stakeholder interviews, and public workshops.
2020: Hanover Route 139 Corridor Study
The Hanover Route 139 Corridor Study is a comprehensive assessment of existing traffic and infrastructure conditions along a 3.6-mile-long section of Route 139 (Hanover Street and Rockland Street), from the Rockland Town Line to Columbia Road (Route 53). The study provides an assessment of the transportation and safety operations within the corridor (approximately 5.2 miles) and includes short term and long-term recommended improvements.
Past Corridor Studies
The Route 106 Corridor Study focuses on a section of Route 106, approximately 16 miles, beginning at the Route 106/Route 28 intersection in West Bridgewater (West Bridgewater Center) extending east to Route 3A in Kingston. This section of the corridor includes Route 106 in the Towns of West Bridgewater (from Route 28 east to East Bridgewater), East Bridgewater, Halifax, Plympton, and Kingston.
One of two corridor studies being conducted in FFY 2017, OCPC will be examining Route 123 in Abington and Brockton. The study area extends from the intersection of Warren Avenue and Belmont Street, through downtown Brockton, and across Abington to the Rockland town line. This route is prone to heavy congestion, as it passes through the business and commercial districts of both towns. The numbered route takes several turns and passes through several major intersections.
Through Task 3400 (Route 53 Corridor Study) of the Old Colony Metropolitan Planning Organization’s FFY 2017 Unified Planning Work Program, Old Colony Planning Council is currently preparing a comprehensive transportation planning level corridor study of the Route 53 Corridor through Hanover, Pembroke, Duxbury, and Kingston. The geographic scope of the Study covers the entire length of Route 53 in the Old Colony region, from the Norwell Town Line on the northern end to the intersection of Route 53 and Route 3A at the southern end in Kinston. Route 53 is a Principal Arterial from the Norwell Town Line to Schoosett Street (Route 139) in Pembroke, and a Minor Arterial from Route 139 in Pembroke southward to its end at the intersection with Route 3A in Kingston. The entire length of Route 53 in this corridor study is under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). Land use and zoning is primarily commercial along the corridor.
The Study will include a complete assessment of existing conditions, including but not necessarily limited to, capacity and efficiency (main line and intersection levels of service) analysis, crash rate and severity analysis, vehicular speed and heavy vehicle traffic analysis, bicycle and pedestrian conditions, transit efficiency, and a public health assessment. Traffic and environmental impacts from any and all known future development along the Route 53 Corridor will be assessed. Any and all recommendations presented in the final report will be based on best engineering and planning practices and derived from a combination of the assessment of existing conditions plus future impacts, and consultation with stakeholders.
One of two corridor studies conducted in FFY 2016, OCPC examined Route 3A in Duxbury. Building upon a previous study in 2007, this corridor study included new member town Duxbury, added in 2012. OCPC studied ways to enhance circulation and traffic flow efficiency, improve safety, and reduce gaps to essential services on this important coastal corridor. The study area runs from the Marshfield town line in the north to the Kingston town line in the south.
Also, in 2016, OCPC studied the Route 28 corridor within the towns of Avon and Brockton. A previous 2006 study also looked at this area, but with ever-increasing traffic volumes, OCPC aims to identify congestion and safety deficiencies and develop recommendations to alleviate them. The study area runs from the Avon town line in the north to the intersection with Plain Street in the south. A presentation on the existing conditions on the route corridor can be found here.
The Old Colony Planning Council (OCPC) has conducted a traffic corridor study that focused on the southwest section of Brockton including Forest Avenue, from Belmont Street (Route 123) to Main Street, Belmont Street (Route 123) from Angus Beaton Drive (Brockton High School) to Torrey Street, Torrey Street from the West Side Plaza driveway to Belmont Street, and West Street from the Belmont Street/Westside Plaza to Torrey Street. The study purpose was to develop short-term and long-term actions that will enhance circulation and traffic flow efficiency, and improve vehicular, transit, pedestrian, and bicycle safety. The final report can be found here: Southwest Brockton Corridor Study.
Bottleneck Studies
The 2013 Major Bottleneck In-Depth Analysis and Action Plan focuses on the Central Street/Harrison Boulevard corridor. It includes Central Street, from the Central Street (Route 27)/West Street intersection in Stoughton, and Harrison Boulevard in Avon to East Main Street (Route 28), including a short segment of East Main Street (Route 28) to the East Main Street (Route 28)/East Spring Street/West Spring Street intersection). The purpose of the study is to develop short-term and long-term actions that enhance the efficiency of traffic flow and circulation. The final report is available here: 2013 Major Bottleneck In-Depth Analysis Report, along with the appendices.
The major bottlenecks included in the 2012 Major Bottleneck Analysis and Action Plan include:
- Bridgewater: Route 104 from South Street to the Raynham Town Line
- Stoughton: Route 138 from Brock Street to the Canton Town Line
The final report is available here: 2012 Major Bottleneck In-Depth Analysis Report.
Three major bottlenecks were included in the 2011 Major Bottleneck In-Depth Analysis and Action Plan:
- East Bridgewater Center (Town Center)
- West Bridgewater: Route 106, from Route 24 to Route 28 (Arterial)
- Plymouth: Route 3, Exit 6 & Vicinity (Limited Access Highway & Interchange)
The final report is available here: 2011 Major Bottleneck In-Depth Analysis Report.
Recurring bottlenecks occur when the rate of approaching traffic is greater than the rate of departing traffic. In 2010, OCPC developed a screening process to identify bottleneck locations within the region. The process utilized the OCPC Congestion Management Process (CMP), Regional Transportation Plan, corridor studies, and other studies, as well as through public outreach. A matrix was developed that included the facility, the bottleneck type, previous studies, and any improvements to the facility (recently implemented or planned). The identification process was documented in the Major Bottleneck Identification Study and Action Plan.
