Flying Colors How Teamwork and Technology Drove the Success of - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Flying Colors How Teamwork and Technology Drove the Success of Hingham’s Route 3A Road Diet Pilot Program Corey O’Connor, PE, Traffic & Safety Engineer Pamela Haznar, PE, Project Development Engineer David Giangrande, PE President Design Consultants, Inc.

Overview  Motivation • Dated existing conditions/geometry • Lack of multimodal equity • Safety and efficiency concerns  Problem • Needed to validate modeling & provide proof the lane reduction would work  Approach • Modeling • Real-Time testing • Pilot Study!  Goals • Validate models • Build Consensus (not necessarily unanimity) • Avoid unnecessary design/construction expense 2

Agenda  Background & Process  Project Need • Modeling • Cooperation • Theory & Design • Execution • Results • Post-Program 3

Background & Process Nantasket Beach Hingham Harbor 4

Background & Process  2012: Community voices concerns on safety, speed, lack of connectivity  June 2013: MassDOT Road Safety Audit  October 2014: Hingham & Hull request a CTPS Corridor Study  April 2015: Hingham Town Meeting funds Engineering Services  February 2016: CTPS Study of 3A/GW Blvd Complete  2016: Design Team begins work on 3A/Summer St alternatives  Spring 2017: Start of public discussion of plans (results of traffic analysis, crash history and proposed pilot)  Summer 2017: Considered Pilot Road Diet; however, additional planning and resources were required  Fall 2017-March 2018, working with Hull and Cohasset, the project was refined: included Technical Discussions, Collaboration Efforts, Logistics' Planning- obtained state approvals, established Operational Review process  Summer 2018: Pilot Program implementation 5

Need - Speeds 6

Need - Crashes 7

Need – Multimodal Access Summer Street in the Residential Area

Need 9

Modeling – Proof of Concept 10

Modeling – Simulation Vissim Simulation Video (Eastbound) 11

Modeling – Projections (Pilot Program) Travel Time Saturday Mid-day Differences in Corridor Travel Time under Existing (4-lane) and Potential (2-Lane) Measured by computer Modeling Existing (4-lane) in Difference in Road Segment Potential (2-Lane) Percent Difference Seconds seconds Eastbound: From North St. to 135.6 167.0 31.4 23.2% George Washington Blvd. Westbound: From Washington 143.0 149.8 6.8 4.7% George Blvd. to North St. Capacity Results • The computer modeling indicates that there is no significant increase in travel time. • Traffic counters and measuring devices will be installed during the proposed pilot to quantity spillover traffic (alternate route traffic & spillover effects on other facilities and neighborhoods) 12

Cooperation  Public Safety (Cohasset, Hull & Hingham)  MassDOT » Taunton District 5 (Maintenance, Traffic, Engineering, Project Management, etc.) » Boston Office (Traffic, Engineering, Project Managers, etc.)  Boston Region MPO » CTPS (Central Transportation Planning Staff)-Authors of the original corridor study)  Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)  DCI (Design Consultants Inc.): Engineering firm hired by Hingham  Synchro 9 from Trafficware to build the corridor models to evaluate the various alternatives being considered  SIDRA Intersection 7 software to evaluate the roundabout alternatives.  Kittelson & Associates – MassDOT Consultant » Vissim Analysis (Traffic modeling software & simulation) 13

Cooperation  On November 20, 2017, and January 17, 2018 - Hingham safety personnel meet with Hull and Cohasset safety personal.  Consensus - Safety officials from all three towns continue to work together and will continue to meet and discuss.  Consensus - Continue to work to develop a more all- encompassing evacuation plan 14

Cooperation Conditions of Access Permit The Access Permit between the Town of Hingham and MassDOT’s Highway Division that:  Established protocol for setup and takedown  Named responsible acencies and individuals  Identified thresholds for success or failure 15

Cooperation – Emergency Removal

Cooperation – Capacity WB direction summarized Scenario when all beach traffic were to hit the George Washington Blvd and Rockland intersection at once Methodology: • Obtain the throughput traffic point right after Rockland Street/GW Blvd intersection (please see below) • WB traffic entering the network was increased to generate oversaturated conditions throughout the simulation • The data collection point shown below was used to get the total number of vehicles that were able to go through the road diet section. Simulation Results: • 10 simulation run • WB throughput around 1,450 vehicles per hour per 17 lane.

Theory & Design Pilot Layout Plan 18

Theory & Design Eastbound out of Rotary 19

Execution ITS Technologies PTZ Camera ITS Management Software Message Board Traffic Sensor Live Travel Time 20

Execution Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) 21

Execution Traffic Counter Locations 22

Execution Data Collections  Pilot Installed • May 20 (Begin acclimation period)  Pilot Data • Thursday, July 12 (AM & PM) • Saturday, July 14 (10 am to 6 pm)  Pilot Removed • July 26 (Acclimation period)  Control Data • Thursday, August 9 (AM & PM) • Saturday, August 11 (10 am to 6 pm) – inclement weather • Saturday, August 18 (10 am to 6 pm) 23

Results  Traffic Volume Changes • No measurable increase  Speed (Post-Pilot and Pilot Study Periods) • Reduction in average speed of 3.0-4.2 MPH for all peaks and directions  Travel Time • Increased between 24 seconds and 48 seconds 24

Results  Diversion • No major traffic shift to any of the 3 diversion routes • Bluetooth matches: 1000 vehicles on primary route and approximately 100 on optional routes  Level of Service • No changes in the level of service due to volume increases  Crash Data • No reported accidents within the pilot study corridor 25

Results Drone View of Pilot Program – Video 26

Post-Pilot Status (Spring 2019)  Outreach: Many meetings with communities, organizations • Town of Hull, Hingham 3A Task Force, etc.  25% Design Submitted  Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) • Preferred Project List 27

Questions

Thank You! Roger Fernandes, Town of Hingham fernandesR@Hingham-MA.gov David Giangrande, Design Consultants, Inc. (DCI) dgiangrande@dci-ma.com Pamela Haznar, MassDOT pamela.haznar@dot.state.ma.us Corey O’Connor, MassDOT corey.oconnor@dot.state.ma.us 29