The ENTERPRISE Pooled Fund completed a project in 2012 called the Assessing the Impacts of Travel Times on the Overall Network to understand the impacts that travel time message displays (web and roadside) have on the network. The outcome of the project concluded that travel time displays have an impact on traffic diversions as travelers react to the increased information presented to them. However the project did not go into a next phase to understand what locations are conducive to travel time displays being the most effective at diverting traffic.
This Phase 1 ENTERPRISE Portable Travel Time Display (PTTD) and ICM with Parallel Routes project was initiated in 2016 with the intent of exploring the feasibility of a system that would enable Departments of Transportation to temporarily locate and test travel time displays at additional locations in order to assess the anticipated impacts on the network without a permanent deployment. Phase 1 completed the initial systems engineering analysis that is included in the Project Summary Report and created a plan for identifying Phase 2 locations that is included in the Corridor Selection Worksheet.
The next phase of this project would include finalizing locations for deploying PTTD for limited periods of time (1-3 months) matching the requirement identified in Phase 1 to assess the impact on the network to decide if a permanent deployment of a travel time display system is warranted, before moving the portable system to new sites for further assessment. Additionally, if enough PTTD deployments occur in multiple states, the ENTERPRISE members could begin to understand contributing factors that can help predict the impacts of travel time displays.