Managed Motorways

Abstract

Managed motorways (formerly known as active traffic management) aim to address traffic congestion and improve journey time reliability with a set of advanced applications of intelligent transport systems to maximize available road capacity. An important feature of managed motorways is the use of hard shoulder running together with variable mandatory speed limits during periods of congestion. Managed motorways were first trialed in the Netherlands and have been in operation in the United Kingdom since 2006. This paper presents the monitoring results of the introduction of managed motorways around Birmingham in the United Kingdom and also describes modeling methods that were used to generalize the findings. Managed motorways around Birmingham have been so effective that they are to be introduced by the UK Highways Agency across the wider network. This paper summarizes the findings of 5 years of monitoring and modeling and refers to the wider set of papers and reports in the public domain for deeper analysis. The paper describes the rigor in monitoring before and after data and in the modeling support for the assessment of outcomes of this transportation investment decision; these outcomes include a reference to the relationship with the economic development in the area. Discussion includes results from a before and after data analysis exercise, the contribution by microsimulation modeling, and findings from an extensive consultation exercise with users of the scheme. The wider economic impacts of investment in managed motorways are examined. The intention is to produce guidance for those transportation organizations that are considering the implementation of managed motorways elsewhere in the world, in particular in the United States.