Challenge
The Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WMPO) needed to collect corridor travel time data throughout the region as part of the biennial data report and Congestion Management Process (CMP). In past years, City staff had collected travel time data manually through floating car runs along major corridors, but this process was labor-intensive and resulted in a small sample size.
Solution
A Kittelson team provided an innovative solution for obtaining travel time data through the National Performance Management Research Data Set (NPMRDS), which provides high-resolution vehicle probe data on major arterials. Using this data set as well as the FHWA probe data tool, we processed median, 85th-percentile, and 95th-percentile travel time data along a series of 30 major arterials, covering 24 hours/day for two months in Fall 2019 and again in Fall 2021. We then developed an interactive online dashboard to support public dissemination of the CMP results.
The Outcome
A Dashboard for Disseminating Travel Time Data
The dashboard is hosted on the WMPO website. It allows users to click through each corridor to view travel time and delay information by time of day and day of the week. With this tool, the WMPO strives to encourage transparency and educate the public on project development and decision-making.
