The Congestion Management System is the planning tool for addressing and managing the region’s traffic congestion.

NOACA developed a Congestion Management System Manual of Practice (updated in July 2002) that defines a regional “transportation network” of roadways and transit routes. The Manual of Practice serves as a blueprint to evaluate congestion on major highway and transit systems, and identifies 13 strategies for improving the operational performance of the transportation network.

NOACA uses the congestion management system to study and improve conditions on the roads in the CMS network, and summarizes its findings in reports and technical memos, such as the following:

• Future Traffic Congestion in the NOACA Region (September 2005): This report evaluates and documents the future operating conditions of all roadways on the NOACA CMS network using traffic projections for the year 2030.
• Existing Traffic Congestion in the NOACA Region (September 2004): This technical memo provides a summary of the existing operating conditions of all roadways on the CMS network.
• CMS Volume-to-Capacity Ratio Evaluation (June 2003): This technical memo ranks the most congested roadway segments in Northeast Ohio.