This new online course provides the fundamentals required to understand, perform, and interpret the results from multimodal operational analysis and performance evaluations. Several of the most commonly used evaluation and analysis methods are presented with real-world examples.

The course focuses on how to develop an appropriate set of performance measures to reliably compute the gains in performance to the transportation system (and/or subsystems) attributable to a project, policy, or program of interest. It also covers the data sources and data reliability, analytic (evaluation) methods and their strengths and limitations, and the overall reliability of the analytical results.

Analytical methods for both uninterrupted flow facilities (freeways) and interrupted flow facilities (surface streets) based on the HCM 6.1 Edition are included.

Additional course detail is provided in the sections below.

• Course Topics
  • Understanding the scope, scale and focus of your program's needs and the evaluation process.
    • What decision processes are driving the need for the performance evaluations?
    • What are the resulting performance measured being used for?
  • Selecting appropriate performance measures, and evaluation methods
  • Overview of the various analytical and empirical techniques for transportation system performance evaluations & monitoring programs
  • Potential data sources: inputs to the analysis process
  • Reliability of analytic methods, empirical methods, and other input data
  • Combining empirical & analytical procedures for better results
  • How to choose data sources & evaluation methods for your project needs
  • Analytical and Simulation Software Tools - Tool types, criteria for selection, and performance measures (with examples)
  • Analysis techniques & data sources - how to choose best data & methods for your particular project needs
• Course Outline

  MODULE 1 (2 hours)

  • Introductions & Course Overview
  • Your project’s evaluation needs, data, performance measures, results
  • Categorizing evaluation methods and performance measures
  • Mainstream Transportation Performance Measures
  • Scope, scale, and purpose of Evaluation Techniques
    • Time (peak hour, peak period, average weekday, annual, long-term trends)
    • Location (intersection/roadway segment, corridor, sub-area,system-wide measures)
    • What decision process are the analysis results being used for?

  MODULE 2 & 3 (two 2-hour sessions)

  • Traffic flow fundamentals for Intersections & Street Segments (Interrupted Flow)
  • Multimodal Analysis of Signalized Intersections
  • Multimodal Analysis of Unsignalized Intersections
  • Multimodal Analysis of Roundabouts
  • Street Segment and Facility Analysis
  • Additional Pedestrian and Bicycle Performance Measures

  MODULE 4 (2 hours)

  • Multimodal Analysis of Freeways
  • Traffic flow fundamentals for freeways & access controlled arterials (Uninterrupted Flow)
    • Analytic Procedures: HCM version 6 Basic, Merge, Diverge, Weave
  • Empirical Procedures: Direct Measurement for Before-After Studies
  • Transit Data (AVL & APC data for reporting transit performance measures)
  • Data Management, Summarizing the Data, Data Visualization & “Telling the Story”

  MODULE 5 (2 hours)

  • Data Sources & model/analysis parameters: inputs to the analysis process
    • Caltrans PeMS (Agency provided ATMS data)
    • INRIX & HERE data (big data, probe vehicles)
    • Locally collected data & data collecting technologies: Bluetooth, probe vehicles, video vstube, etc.
  • How reliable are the analytic methods – How much can we trust the numbers?
  • How reliable are the data & empirical analysis – How much can we trust the numbers?
  • Combining empirical & analytic procedures for better results
  • With all these analysis techniques & data sources – how to choose best data & methods for your particular project needs!

  MODULE 6 (2 hours)

  • Analytical & Simulation Software Tools – Tool types, criteria for selection, and performance measures(with examples)
  • With all these analysis techniques & data sources – how to choose best data & methods for your particular project needs!
  • Closing remarks & course summary
• What you will learn

  Attendees will learn about the various analytic methods that can be used to measure the performance of transportation systems and isolated system elements (like freeway segments and signalized intersections), which performance measures are best suited for different analysis purposes, and how to choose performance measures for a particular project. 

  Upon completion of the course, attendees will be able to gauge the reliability of the performance estimation process, the underlying inputs and the resulting (calculated) performance measures.

  This course uses a combination of lectures, case-study examples, and classroom exercises to convey tools and logic for tackling traffic problems. It provides a sound technical foundation for additional specialized courses such as traffic signal operations, freeway operations, and roadway capacity analysis.

• Who should attend

  This course is intended for transportation planners, transportation engineers and technicians at local, regional, and state agencies, as well as transportation planning consultants. Both new and experienced planners and engineers will benefit from this course.

  It will also benefit board members, managers, and others involved with developing, reviewing and/or approving transportation performance monitoring programs, corridor improvement plans, or transportation system performance evaluation efforts.

• Course Prerequisites

  [no prerequisites identified]

• Course Instructors

  Bill Cisco, PE, Manager Urban Planning Traffic Engineering / PTV

  Bill Cisco has over 20 years of experience in transportation engineering and planning. Bill's areas of expertise include traffic operations, transportation planning, transportation impact analysis, travel forecasting, congestion management, parking analysis, and training. At PTV, Bill's duties include managing traffic engineering and transportation planning software applications, including PTV Vistro.

  Previously, Bill worked at Traffic Technology Services as a director of product intelligence, and as a consultant for Dowling Associates, CCS Planning & Engineering, and Kaku Associates. Bill is registered as a professional engineer.

  Vikash Gayah, PhD, Associate Professor, Larson Transportation Institute, Pennsylvania State University

  Dr. Vikash V. Gayah is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Central Florida and his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Gayah's research focuses on urban mobility, traffic operations, traffic flow theory, traffic safety and public transportation. His research approach includes a combination of analytical models, micro-simulations and empirical analysis of transportation data.

  He has worked on research contracts sponsored by various State Departments of Transportation (including Pennsylvania, Washington State, Montana and South Dakota), US Department of Transportation (via the Mineta National Transit Research Consortium, the Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center, and the Center for Integrated Asset Management for Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure Systems), Federal Highway Administration, National Cooperative Highway Research Program and National Science Foundation.

• Registration Information

  Registration for this course occurs at the TechTransfer training host site. Use the button to the right to directly access the course page and registration portal. You will be asked to create a user account as part of the registration process.

  A confirmation email will be sent to you within two business days of TechTransfer receiving your paid registration.

  If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact the TechTransfer Registrar at (510) 643-4393 or registrar@techtransfer.berkeley.edu.

• For more information

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  To learn more about TechTransfer's cancellation, refund, and substitution policies, see How to Enroll (https://www.techtransfer.berkeley.edu/enrollment/how-enroll).

  Cancellation Policy:

  The cancellation fee for this course is $75. At TechTransfer, there are no refunds for classes with registration fees of $75 or less. For all other classes, you may cancel your enrollment and receive a refund of your registration fee less $75, provided they receive your written request to cancel at least 5 full working days before the class is scheduled to begin. In lieu of canceling your registration, you may (1) transfer your registration to another TechTransfer class, (2) receive a tuition credit for the full amount, useable toward a future class, or (3) send a substitute in your place.

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