Developing a Guide for Rural Highways: Reliability and Quality of Service Evaluation Methods (2024)
Chapter: Summary
Summary
Rural highways account for a very significant portion of the national highway system and serve many vital mobility purposes. Rural highways, which often span long distances, may consist of segments with a variety of cross-section elements (two-lane highway, multilane highway, passing lane sections) as well as intersections with different traffic controls (signal control, stop-control, roundabouts with yield control).
The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM), the standard reference for traffic analysis methodologies, contains analysis methods for all the individual segments or intersections that may comprise a rural highway; however, it does not include a method, or guidance, for connecting the individual roadway segments into a connected, cohesive, facility-level analysis.
This project resulted in the development of reliability and level of service analysis methodologies for rural highway facilities, consistent with existing HCM methods. These analysis methods are documented in the primary product of this project: NCHRP Research Report 1102: Reliability and Quality of Service Evaluation Methods for Rural Highways: A Guide. The Guide is intended to assist transportation agencies charged with monitoring, maintaining, and improving rural highways of regional or statewide importance. More specifically, it is intended to assist with the evaluation of rural highways in three areas:
- Motorized vehicle traffic operations per HCM analysis methods,
- Motorized vehicle traffic operations per probe vehicle data analysis methods, and
- Overview of alternative analysis methods, to the HCM, for bicycles and recommendations for future bicycle operations research needs.
The Guide is organized into three main parts. The first part is focused on analysis methodology descriptions. The second part provides an overview of the component HCM analysis methodologies that are incorporated in the rural highway analysis methodology for automobiles. The third part is focused on case studies using real-world routes to demonstrate the analysis methodologies in the Guide.
