1. The New Highway Capacity Manual 6th Edition It’s Not Your Father’s HCM
Tom Creasey, P.E., Ph.D.
Principal, Stantec Consulting Services Inc.
Chair, TRB Highway Capacity and Quality of Service Committee
OKI Intermodal Coordinating Committee Meeting
February 7, 2017

2. We just published an update in 2010. Why another one?
Need for new research
Changes in driver behavior, vehicle fleet mix & capabilities, analytical methods, performance measures
New research since 2010 – truck analysis, managed lanes, reliability, alternative intersections, planning applications
Available funding (including SHRP2)

3. HCM Structure Printed HCM Online Volume 1: Concepts
The HCM is divided into four volumes: three printed and one online. Volume 1 houses material on concepts that all HCM users should be familiar with before applying the HCM. Volume 2 describes the methodologies for freeways and highways, while Volume 3 describes the methodologies for urban streets and off-street pedestrian and bicycle facilities. Volume 4 provides additional resources that support the material in the printed HCM. We’ll briefly go through the contents of each of these volumes in the next few slides. Later in the webinar, we’ll go over the important changes in the HCM.
Volume 2: Uninterrupted Flow
Volume 4: Applications Guide
Volume 3: Interrupted Flow 3

4. Application of the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM)
The HCM is commonly used by transportation agencies to evaluate current or projected operations
The HCM also can reliably and cost-effectively support:
Planning efforts
Programming decisions
Performance monitoring
Roadway management
Bringing the “back of the envelope” back

5. Planning and Preliminary Engineering Applications Guide to the HCM
Planning and Preliminary Engineering Applications Guide to the Highway Capacity Manual
REPORT 825
NCHRP Research Project 7-22
Research Team
Kittelson & Associates, Inc.
Richard Dowling (PI)
Paul Ryus
ITRE/North Carolina State University
Bastian Schroeder
Stantec
Tom Creasey
University of Idaho
Michael Kyte

6. “Planning” in an HCM Context
Planning analyses are generally directed toward broad issues
Initial problem identification, long-range analyses, statewide performance monitoring
Preliminary engineering analyses support moderately detailed issues
Planning decisions on roadway design concept and scope, alternatives analyses, and proposed systemwide policies
Before jumping into the presentation, it will be useful to define what planning and preliminary engineering is in an HCM context.
In an HCM context, planning analyses are generally directed toward broad issues that involve analyzing a large number of facilities. The purpose of the analysis may be to identify facilities that have existing or future operational issues and will equire more a detailed analysis. In this case, HCM methods are used to screen out facilities that are unlikely to have problems, allowing analysis resources to be focused on potential problem areas. HCM planning analysis techniques are also applicable to statewide performance monitoring, where the performance of a large number of facilities needs to be summarized.
Preliminary engineering analyses support moderately detailed issues, such as identifying the required number of lanes to provide a given level of service and conducting a more-detailed analysis of a limited set of alternatives. These types of analyses can also investigate the potential effects of proposed systemwide policies such as lane use control for heavy vehicles, systemwide freeway ramp metering and other intelligent transportation system applications, and the use of demand management techniques.
The HCM also defines ”design” and ”operations” levels of analyses that are more detailed and beyond the scope of the Planning & Preliminary Engineering Guide; we’ll cover these briefly later in the presentation.

7. Audiences for the Guide
Regular HCM users
Planning or preliminary engineering–level analyses with limited available data
Questions requiring a quick, reasonable answer
Planners who may not be aware of the HCM or consider themselves HCM users, but who can nevertheless use it for portions of their work
Coordinated use of the HCM with planning models and tools
Integration of HCM methods and defaults into planning tools
System performance monitoring

8. Levels of Analysis High level Medium level Low level
Large analysis area
Low detail
Medium level
Focus on a single roadway facility, segment, or intersection
Greater detail
Low level
Highly focused and highly detailed
Planning and preliminary engineering covers a wide spectrum of possible levels of analysis. At the highest level (visualize a plane flying at high altitude), the area covered by the analysis is large, but the degree of detail or precision for any particular roadway segment is low. This is a typical characteristic of areawide studies and sketch planning and screening studies. Relatively few data inputs (e.g., volume, number of lanes) are used, but the number of roadways to be analyzed can be challenging, and the precision of the results is low. Medium-level analyses, such as typical HCM analyses, using a mix of measured and default values, have smaller study areas but require a greater variety of data inputs, and the analysis results have a correspondingly higher precision. Microsimulation is an example of a low-level analysis that requires a great deal of time and data, but produces the most detailed results. In general, the level of detail produced by microsimulation is unnecessary for a planning analysis, as many of the data inputs (e.g., future volumes) are not known with great accuracy.

9. Relative Detail of HCM-Based Analysis Methods
Measuring a performance measure directly in the field usually (but not always) results in more accurate analysis results than estimating the measure indirectly using an HCM-based method or other analysis tool, but also requires more resources in terms of time and money. When it is impractical to measure performance in the field, the Guide takes the perspective that an HCM analysis using field-measured inputs is most accurate, followed by an HCM analysis using a mix of default values and field-measured inputs, followed by the alternative analysis methods described in the Guide.

10. Part 2: Medium-Level Analysis
Guide Outline
Part 1: Overview
Gateway to the Guide for non-HCM users
Information cross-referenced throughout the Guide
Part 2: Medium-Level Analysis
Gateway to the Guide for current HCM users
Planning tools for HCM system elements
Part 3: High-Level Analysis
Guidance on extending the HCM to corridors, areas, and transportation systems
Part 4: Case Studies
Recognizing the breadth of the Guide’s target audience, the Guide has been structured so that it can been approached in different ways. Importantly, the Guide is designed as a reference work that is not intended to be read cover to cover. Non-HCM users access the Guide via Part 1, while HCM users are referred to appropriate parts of the Guide directly from the HCM 6th Edition. These gateways then refer readers to appropriate sections in Parts 1–4 for more information and examples. In addition to providing an overview of the Guide, Part 1 addresses topics cross-referenced throughout the Guide. Part 2 is divided into sections corresponding to HCM system elements (e.g., freeway facilities or signalized intersections), and also provides sections on multimodal analysis and truck level of service. Part 3 provides guidance on extending the HCM to larger study areas, including corridors, areas, and entire transportation systems. Finally, Part 4 provides three case studies demonstrating many of the methods provided in the Guide. The remainder of this webinar will cover each of these parts in detail.

11. Applications
LRTP, TIP development
Corridor studies; screening of alternatives
Small area transportation plans
Travel demand modeling
Generalized service volume tables
Congestion management plans
System performance monitoring, including travel time reliability
Predicting traffic control
Default values for transportation analyses

12. Case Studies Freeway Master Plan Arterial Bus Rapid Transit
V/C screening of critical
segments
Prediction of speeds/travel
times
Queuing estimation
System MOEs
Arterial Bus Rapid Transit
Multimodal Urban Street planning methods
Planning-level signalized intersection analysis
Trade-offs among various multimodal improvements
Recognizing the breadth of the Guide’s target audience, the Guide has been structured so that it can been approached in different ways. Importantly, the Guide is designed as a reference work that is not intended to be read cover to cover. Non-HCM users access the Guide via Part 1, while HCM users are referred to appropriate parts of the Guide directly from the HCM 6th Edition. These gateways then refer readers to appropriate sections in Parts 1–4 for more information and examples. In addition to providing an overview of the Guide, Part 1 addresses topics cross-referenced throughout the Guide. Part 2 is divided into sections corresponding to HCM system elements (e.g., freeway facilities or signalized intersections), and also provides sections on multimodal analysis and truck level of service. Part 3 provides guidance on extending the HCM to larger study areas, including corridors, areas, and entire transportation systems. Finally, Part 4 provides three case studies demonstrating many of the methods provided in the Guide. The remainder of this webinar will cover each of these parts in detail.

13. Case Studies Long Range Transportation Plan
FFS, Capacities for Model Input
HCM-based Volume-Delay Functions
Generalized Service Volume Tables
Predicting Reliability
Recognizing the breadth of the Guide’s target audience, the Guide has been structured so that it can been approached in different ways. Importantly, the Guide is designed as a reference work that is not intended to be read cover to cover. Non-HCM users access the Guide via Part 1, while HCM users are referred to appropriate parts of the Guide directly from the HCM 6th Edition. These gateways then refer readers to appropriate sections in Parts 1–4 for more information and examples. In addition to providing an overview of the Guide, Part 1 addresses topics cross-referenced throughout the Guide. Part 2 is divided into sections corresponding to HCM system elements (e.g., freeway facilities or signalized intersections), and also provides sections on multimodal analysis and truck level of service. Part 3 provides guidance on extending the HCM to larger study areas, including corridors, areas, and entire transportation systems. Finally, Part 4 provides three case studies demonstrating many of the methods provided in the Guide. The remainder of this webinar will cover each of these parts in detail.

14. Summary
Planners have been using Highway Capacity Manual methods in their applications for many years
Guidance on using the HCM for planning has been limited through previous editions
The Planning & Preliminary Engineering Applications Guide was written specifically for planners
The result is planners now have a more robust tool set than ever before for all types of applications

15. Questions?
This concludes the webinar presentation. We now invite the audience to ask questions about the material that was covered. 15