This paper describes the collection and use of 1.4 million travel time records that were collected over a 12-week period to evaluate and communicate quantifiable travel mobility metrics for a rural Interstate Highway workzone along I-65 in Northwestern Indiana. The effort involved the automated collection and processing of Bluetooth probe data from multiple field collection sites, communicating travel delay times to the motoring public, assessing driver diversion rates, and developing proposed metrics for a state transportation agency to evaluate work zone mobility performance. Collected travel time profiles were compared against traditionally measured hourly flows in both incident and non-incident conditions. Through the 12-week period over which work zone performance was measured, the work zone had 422 hours of congested conditions in which travel time delay was greaterthan 10 minutes. Despite display of real-time delay measurements to the motoring public via portable dynamic message signs, a negligible percentageof the travel probes were observed to divert in advance of the congested workzone through self-guidance. Implementation of a targeted alternate route starting the weekend of July 24th resulted in an increase of observed probes diverting along the trail blazed route from virtually none to over 30%. The paper concludes by suggesting acquisition of work zone travel time data provides a mechanism for assessing the relationship between crashesand work zone queuing. Real-time monitoring of this travel time data may also enable future contracts to include innovative travel time reliabilityclauses.
Abstract