MEMORANDUM
DATE September 20, 2012
TO Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization
FROM Karl H. Quackenbush
CTPS Executive Director
RE Work Program for: I-93 North and Southeast Expressway HOV Lane Monitoring: October 1–December 31, 2012
Review and approval
That the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, upon the recommendation of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, vote to approve the work program for I-93 North and Southeast Expressway HOV Lane Monitoring: October 1–December 31, 2012, in the form of the draft dated September 20, 2012.
Planning Studies
23228
Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Office of Transportation Planning
Project Supervisor: Bob Frey
Principal: Efi Pagitsas
Manager: Seth Asante
MassDOT SPR Contract #72982
The MPO staff (CTPS) has sufficient resources to complete this work in a capable and timely manner. By undertaking this work, the MPO staff will neither delay the completion nor reduce the quality of other work in the UPWP.
In 1998, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) began requiring monitoring of the Southeast Expressway and I-93 North general-purpose and high‑occupancy‑vehicle (HOV) lanes to determine HOV performance. The requirements are set forth in DEP regulation 310 CMR 7.37, which calls for travel time data to be collected seasonally throughout the year, including samples for each of the five weekdays. Each year since 1998, a work program has provided for the continuation of this process, describing the projected tasks, scheduling, products, and costs of HOV monitoring for an entire year, starting on October 1. However, as MassDOT and CTPS are transitioning to an alternative data collection method that has not been fully established yet, the present work program covers only the period from October 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012. It is expected that there will be a follow-up work program covering the same activities for the period January 1, 2013, to September 30, 2013.
The objectives of this work program are to perform the following monitoring and analysis for October 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012 (henceforward referred to as the fall of 2012):
The work required to accomplish the study objectives will be carried out in four tasks, as described below:
CTPS will collect sample travel time data using stopwatches and Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite receivers in rented automobiles on the I-93 North and Southeast Expressway HOV and general-purpose lanes. The collection hours are between 6:00 and 10:00 AM on I-93 North southbound and the Southeast Expressway northbound and between 3:00 and 7:00 PM on the Southeast Expressway southbound. Data will be collected in the fall of 2012 only.
Fall 2012 travel time data for the general-purpose and HOV lanes in electronic form and in handwritten field notes.
CTPS will process the travel time data, analyze it, and document results in a table and graphs. Staff will estimate the travel-time savings afforded by the HOV lanes compared to travel in the general-purpose lanes for the fall of 2012.
A table and set of graphs presenting estimates of fall 2012 travel times and HOV travel time savings for I-93 North during the AM period and for the Southeast Expressway during the AM and PM periods.
CTPS will collect vehicle occupancy data on both the I-93 North and Southeast Expressway HOV lanes and their associated general-purpose lanes on a typical weekday during the fall of 2012. Data will be collected throughout the four hours of AM HOV operation. Vehicle occupancies will be calculated and analyzed.
Total numbers of vehicles and their occupants, grouped by 15-minute intervals, on a typical weekday during the fall for each of the two HOV, and for the general-purpose lanes under study.
The data collected in Task 1 and the analysis of it in Task 2 will be documented in a technical memorandum on HOV lane performance. The occupancy data collected and analyzed in Task 3 will also be reported in the memo, which will include a calculation of the total vehicles and persons and the vehicle occupancy rate for the I-93 North and Southeast Expressway HOV and general-purpose lanes.
• A memorandum documenting the performance of the HOV lanes during the fall of 2012 in terms of travel time. The memorandum will also include the results of vehicle occupancy counts.
It is estimated that this project will be completed 12 weeks after the notice to proceed is received. The proposed schedule, by task, is shown in Exhibit 1.
The total cost of this project is estimated to be $17,653. This includes the cost of 11.7 person-weeks of staff time, overhead at the rate of 96.58 percent, and travel. A detailed breakdown of estimated costs is presented in Exhibit 2.
KHQ/SAA/saa
Task |
Week | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |
|
1.
Travel Time Data Collection |
Week 1, deliverable , .
From week 1 to 5.5.
| |||||||||||
|
2.
Travel Time Data Processing |
Week 1, deliverable , .
From week 6.5 to 9.
| |||||||||||
|
3.
Vehicle Occupancy Counts |
From week 5.5 to 6.5.
| |||||||||||
|
4.
Study Documentation |
From week 5 to 13.
Week 13, deliverable A, Memo documenting fall 2012 travel times and vehicle occupancy.
| |||||||||||
Task |
Person-Weeks | Direct Salary |
Overhead (96.58%) |
Total Cost |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-1 | P-5 | P-2 | Temp | Total | ||||
|
1.
Travel Time Data Collection |
0.0 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 5.4 | 5.9 | $3,136 | $3,029 | $6,166 |
|
2.
Travel Time Data Processing |
0.0 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 1.6 | $1,525 | $1,473 | $2,997 |
|
3.
Vehicle Occupancy Counts |
0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 3.5 | $2,289 | $2,211 | $4,500 |
|
4.
Study Documentation |
0.2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | $1,178 | $1,137 | $2,315 |
|
Total |
0.2 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 8.6 | 11.7 | $8,128 | $7,850 | $15,978 |