Over the past 25 years, MnDOT has participated in a mobility analysis and research pooled fund along with a combination of state departments of transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.  The Principal Investigator, the Texas A & M Transportation Institute, has been providing valuable research related to performance measures and tools for monitoring mobility conditions to its State DOT partners.

MASTER members contribute annually to the pooled fund and are reimbursed for travel to the annual meeting that rotates locations among State DOTs. A work plan is developed and approved annually by the State DOT members. The most recent work plans were funded through TPF-5(440) – Support for Urban Mobility Analyses (SUMA). That project number was closed out on August 31, 2023. To view recent work plans and project results, visit the program website at: https://tti.tamu.edu/documents/umi/data/suma/files.htm

The pooled fund study scope focuses on mobility and reliability performance measures, data and issues. New emphasis areas include emerging data sources, freight movement, arterial street mobility issues, reliability performance measures, and addressing the agency challenges for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requirements.

Task 1: Evaluate Mobility Datasets: The Research Agency shall investigate new and emerging datasets for mobility and origin-destination analyses, in particular, location-based services (LBS) and global positioning systems (GPS) probe data for motorized and non-motorized trips. The Research Agency shall evaluate quality assurance/quality control practices and bench-marking measures for origin-destination flow data from third-party data provider(s), including, but not limited to sample size, completeness, accuracy, resolution, and bias with respect to their intended applications (e.g., performance monitoring, system resiliency).

Task 2: Develop Freight Measures for System Performance Evaluation: The Research Agency shall develop a methodology and calculate a freight commodity value using readily available data for individual roadway segments. The Research Agency shall assess the best methods of valuation including, but not limited to value per ton and value per truck and shall develop an assignment methodology using the origin-destination zone pair from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) database. The Research Agency shall base the total commodity value of a road on functional road class and truck volume for a particular road segment using assigned values. The Research Agency shall document this methodology in an annual and/or quarterly Technical Memorandum.

Task 3: Develop Performance Assessment and Evaluation Analytical Tools Budget: The Research Agency shall develop a performance and mobility assessment tool that integrates a suite of measures useful and important to the pooled study participants. These measures will include, but are not limited to, federally required system performance measures and other performance measures such as delay, reliability and commodity cost. The tool will provide freight, passenger vehicle, and “all vehicle” measure information over time in addition to statewide and urban area performance measures. The tool will also allow the analysis of other important points of interest to each state (e.g., ports, airports, border crossings, inter-modal facilities). The Research Agency shall also broaden the spectrum of mobility and congestion-reduction strategies, refine the benefit ranges for these strategies, and provide other analytical and use improvements to allow users to better predict project benefits. The Research Agency shall document the system needs and analysis guidance in an annual and/or quarterly Technical Memorandum.

Task 4: Syntheses Development: The Research Agency shall conduct syntheses on key topic areas of interest to the pooled study participants. The syntheses will include 5- to 10-page summaries of current practices/activities in several topical areas. Two syntheses per fiscal year are anticipated, depending on the depth and breadth of the topics. Final syntheses topics are vetted and finalized by the pooled study participants.

Task 5: Support Sponsoring Agencies: The Research Agency shall provide assistance to the pooled study participants in the application of products in their operations, planning and performance measurement activities within their agency, as well as contract project management functions.

Task 6: Support Travel to Annual Meeting: The Research Agency shall hold a 1.5-day annual meeting for sponsors to discuss work task accomplishments, work plans for future years and other important issues.          

Annual funding required is $35,000 per state. Existing partner states are asked to make all commitments for the 2024 project. See the previous pooled fund study TPF 5(440) for the study history.