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Technical Memorandums

 

To document staff's work for the planning process, the following Technical Memorandums were completed and are available for download using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

    Calendar Year 2010

  • Transit Network Guide Fiscal Year 2008 (3.2 MB-May 2010)- This document contains information about fixed route transit service and the number of buses in the NOACA region. It estimates weekday ridership by route along with a ridership comparison between 2007 and 2008. This document also includes an inventory of the Park-N-Ride lots in the NOACA region, along with a count of vehicles in each lot.

  • Regional Sidewalk Inventory (February 2010 - 4.01 MB) - This tech memo provides an inventory of sidewalk coverage for the entire NOACA region. It describes the sidewalk coverage and provides mapping at the county and regional level. This database will be updated as new aerial imagery becomes available and as projects with new or improved sidewalks are programmed in the TIP.


    • Calendar Year 2009
  • Intermodal Connector Analysis on the National Highway System (March 2009 - 6.8 MB) - National Highway System intermodal connectors are the public roads leading to major intermodal facilities from the National Highway System (NHS). The NHS is approximately 160,000 miles of roadway important to our nation’s economy, defense and mobility. Intermodal connectors are a significant part of the transportation system and are necessary for timely and reliable movement of goods and passengers. The U.S. Department of Transportation, state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) have the task of designating NHS connectors. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) defines the minimum amount of freight transfer activity needed at an intermodal facility to designate a connector to that facility as part of the NHS. The criteria are high so that only connectors to major facilities receive the NHS intermodal connector designation.

    This NHS intermodal connector analysis directly addresses one of the recommendations of the federal review team. This analysis resulted in NOACA’s recommendation that sixteen connectors be deleted or modified. Also, NOACA recommends adding seven new connectors to new and existing facilities.


  • Arterial Travel Time Pilot Study along Segments of SR-10 and US-42 Corridors (February 2009 - 2.4 MB) - A pilot study was undertaken to collect travel time data for arterials in the NOACA region. NOACA staff selected two urban arterials, SR-10 and US-42, within Cuyahoga County to collect the data (see Map 1 on page 3). The pilot study will serve as an example for conducting future travel time and speed studies on the arterial transportation network. It will also be used to establish a methodology and speed thresholds.

    Fieldwork for the travel time survey was conducted in the spring and summer of 2008 by field observers using the “average car technique” (see page 4 in the methodology section for a description of this technique). Each corridor was divided into segments. This allowed travel characteristics to be developed for each segment. Travel characteristics evaluated include operating speed, elapsed travel time, and duration and frequency of delays. These are all performance measures that convey a broader picture of how traffic moves on the arterial system.


    • Calendar Year 2008
  • Lorain County Pavement Analysis (August 2008 - 3.9 MB) - This technical memorandum is an analysis of pavement conditions on the federal-aid eligible roadways in Lorain County. The data used in this memorandum is from 2006, which is the most recent information included in NOACA’s Regional Pavement Management System (RPMS). Officials from the City of Elyria requested this information to compare the condition of their roadways to other cities in Lorain County.

    Two maps were created for each jurisdiction in Lorain County. One shows the jurisdiction of the roadways within the community and the other indicates the condition of the federal-aid eligible roadways by different groupings of Pavement Condition Ratings (PCR’s). Also, for each community a table was created showing the number of miles and condition of the federal-aid eligible roadways by jurisdiction. Finally, a pie chart was created for each community which illustrates the general condition of its federal-aid roadways.

    In 2007, the NOACA Governing Board established a regional pavement goal to have 90 percent of the federal-aid system achieve a PCR rating of 60 or better by 2010 and 95 percent by 2015. This memorandum can assist in locating areas in Lorain County that currently do not meet NOACA’s pavement goals. Information in this memorandum shows pavement conditions for specific cities, villages and townships.


  • Congestion Management Process –Inventory of Existing Traffic (August 2008 - 1.7 MB) - This technical memorandum evaluates and documents the existing operating conditions of all roadways on the NOACA Congestion Management Process (CMP) network. It updates the information in the FY 2004 memo “Existing Traffic Congestion in the NOACA Region.” It also includes an update to the ranking of the worst congested segments on the CMP network that were identified in 2004. The ranking is based on the volume-to capacity (V/C) ratio, which serves as a tool for identifying areas where travel demand exceeds available capacity. Results of the analysis will be used as input into the 2030 long range transportation plan.


    • Calendar Year 2007
  • Amendment of Connections 2030 with Avon Interchange Project (December 2007 - 1.9 MB) - PM2.5 and Ozone Conformity Analyses for Transportation Plans, Programs, and Projects in the Cleveland-Akron-Lorain, Ohio Metropolitan Area to comply with need to reestablish 8-Hour Ozone and PM2.5 Conformity for the amendment of Connections 2030 with the Avon Interchange Project.

  • Performance Measures and Threshold Values for NOACA's Congestion Management Process (August 2007 - 2.1 MB) - This technical memorandum describes the performance measures and threshold values used in the evaluation of the NOACA Congestion Management Process (CMP).

    An extensive review of CMP programs and literature of other CMP studies completed in metropolitan planning areas nationwide was conducted via the internet. Based on this review, NOACA staff found that travel-time-based measures are the most widely accepted performance measures used by MPOs. They identified congestion areas using mostly travel-time-based measures as primary measures on freeways and arterials. NOACA has expanded the analysis to include V/C ratios, average travel time, average speed, delays, accidents, and pavement condition rating.

  • Conformity Analysis for Plans and Transportation Improvement Programs (May 2007 - 745 KB) - PM2.5 and Ozone Conformity Analyses for Transportation Plans, Programs, and Projects in the Cleveland-Akron-Lorain, Ohio Metropolitan Area to comply with need to reestablish 8-Hour Ozone amd PM2.5 Conformity for the SFY 2008-2011 Transportation Improvement Programs
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    Calendar Year 2006
  • Base Year 2002 Mobile Source Hydrocarbon and NOX Inventory for Northeast Ohio Moderate Ozone Nonattainment Area (October 2006 - 1.2 KB) - Required base year inventory for moderate ozone nonattainment areas under the 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard.

  • US-42 Project in Strongsville, Ohio Conformity (September 2006 - 1.38 MB) - PM2.5 and Ozone Conformity Analyses for Transportation Plans, Programs, and Projects in the Cleveland-Akron- Lorain, Ohio Metropolitan Area to comply with need to reestablish 8-Hour Ozone amd PM2.5 Conformity following the addition of the US-42 project in Strongsville, Ohio to the NOACA transportation plan and transportation improvement program.

  • The Nickel Plate Line (August 2006 - 569 KB) - The rail line preservation technical memo focuses on the Nickel Plate Line, from Cleveland to Vermilion. This memo discusses the future of this rail line.

  • PM2.5 and Ozone Conformity Analyses for Transportation Plans, Programs, and Projects in the Cleveland-Akron-Lorain, Ohio Metropolitan Area (February 2006 - 1.35 MB) - PM2.5 and Ozone Conformity Analyses for Transportation Plans, Programs, and Projects in the Cleveland-Akron- Lorain, Ohio Metropolitan Area to comply with need to reestablish 8-Hour Ozone Conformity following the addition of capacity to the Akron Metropolitan area’s transportation plan and TIP, and to establish conformity for fine particles following the area’s nonattainment designation last April.

    Calendar Year 2005
  • Special Transit Planning (October 2005 - 989 KB) - The Special Transit Planning technical memorandum discusses the growing needs and demands of providing transportation services to the growing special populations defined as seniors 60 and over, and/or disabled of any age.

  • Socio-Economic Forecast: 2000 - 2030 NOACA Region by Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) (August 2005 - 1.07 MB) - This technical memorandum is a supplement to the modeling documentation for the NOACA 2000 model update. In this memo, staff explains the socio-economic forecasting process and methods of analysis from year 2000 to 2030. The socio-economic forecast is calculated outside the modeling routine and the results are directly input to the model.

  • Travel Demand Model Validation: NOACA Model Update with 1236 Zones and 82 External Stations (June 2005 - 2.66 MB) - This technical memorandum is a supplement to the travel demand modeling documentation for the NOACA’s year 2000 model update. In this memo, staff explains the validation process for the year 2000 travel demand model forecast.

  • External Station Forecast: NOACA Model Update with 1236 Zones and 82 External Stations (June 2005 - 5.97 MB) - This technical memorandum is a supplement to the modeling documentation for the NOACA 2000 model update. In this memo, staff explains the forecasting process and method of analysis used to estimate external station trips for the forecast period from year 2000 to 2030. The external station forecast is calculated outside the modeling routine and the results are directly input to the model.

  • Pedestrian Planning Technical Memo (June 2005 - 768KB) - This technical memo focuses on pedestrian transportation issues. It includes an updated sidewalk inventory and analysis, pedestrian projects in the Transportation Improvement Program, and strategies for improving the conditions for pedestrians in the region.

  • Estimated Bridge and Pavement Expenses for NOACA’s Transportation Plan (June 2005 - 354 KB) -This technical memorandum looks at estimated annual expenses to keep the region’s pavements and bridges in a good state of repair.

  • Conformity Analyses (April 2005 - 800KB) - This technical memo focuses on Conformity Analyses for the Akron Metropolitan Transportation Agency (AMATS) 2030 Regional Transportation Plan, AMATS SFY 2006-2009 Transportation Improvement Program, NOACA Connections 2030 Transportation Plan, NOACA SFY 2006-2009 Transportation Improvement Program, and Ashtabula County Portion of 8-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Area.

  • 8-Hour Standard Technical Memo (April 2005 - 2.68 MB) -This technical memorandum looks at conformity analyses demonstrating consistency between the existing Transportation Plan And The 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard.

    You can also view Technical Memorandums completed during 2001 through 2004.