This paper deals with a new Traffic Congestion Management Plan developed for the Hampton Roads area in the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA. The name "Hampton Roads" is given to a collection of seven adjoining cities in the south-east section of the State, including the City of Norfolk, which claims the largest navy base in the world. The economies of the seven cities are largely dependent on the naval base and related industries, yet there is no regional governmental structure to address the common problems of traffic congestion in the area. The individual city governments tend to address only the problems within their own city boundaries, and not those that are common to more than one city. This results in the motorist experiencing varying levels of congestion management and service while crossing different city boundaries. Therefore, an ad-hoc technical/policy committee was formed, with representatives from the seven cities, and other related agencies including the private sector. The primary function of the committee is to compensate for the lack of any formal governmental structure in addressing the common transportation problems by developing an area wide Congestion Management Plan to provide the motorist with a sense of "transparent boundaries" between adjacent cities. The plan deals with cooperation between the cities in providing congestion management by the use of various Transportation Demand Management programs including Freeway/Corridor Traffic Management programs, Incident Detection and Management programs and Traffic Signal Control programs. (A)
Samenvatting