The Raleigh Durham area in North Carolina experienced tremendous growth in both population (50%) and travel (56%) in the decade spanning 1995-2005. The I-40 corridor, which encompasses I-40, I-85, I-440, I-540, NC147, and US-70 is under great strain. The I-40 corridor is vital to the economic health of the region and the entire state, and it is representative of the transportation mobility challenges faced in rapidly growing urban areas. Traditional highway construction approaches alone cannot meet these current and future challenges.
These realities render it imperative that the NCDOT and metropolitan and regional planning agencies have the tools necessary to assess the system performance impacts of a variety of operational strategies, including HOV/HOT lanes, congestion or value pricing, ramp metering, system-wide signal coordination, incident and work zone management, and expanded traveler information.
This project delivered a calibrated DynusT model of the Triangle region that provides this performance assessment capability. The DynusT tool is the federally-sponsored continuation of the DYNASMART-P meso-scale dynamic traffic assignment software development effort. The model’s performance assessment capability was demonstrated through application of the Triangle DynusT model to a series of carefully selected evaluation scenarios. Although the project was self-contained and motivated through its focus on the I-40 corridor, the findings are envisioned as the first step toward bringing regional-scale mesoscopic dynamic traffic assignment modeling capability statewide for modeling North Carolina’s strategic highway corridors and detailed transportation program support for each of the state’s metropolitan and rural planning regions.
