NOACA staff is working to establish policies concerning congestion management; specifically defining acceptable levels of congestion and prioritizing congestion mitigation strategies.

Sources of Congestion Include:

• Too much traffic for the available physical capacity to handle
• Traffic incidents
• Work zones
• Bad weather
• Special events
• Poorly timed traffic signals

Congestion Mitigation Strategies Include:

1. Add capacity to the transportation system:
   • Add capacity to the transit system
   • High occupancy vehicle (HOV)/High occupancy too (HOT) lanes
   • Increasing capacity of non-freeway corridors
   • Increasing intercity freight rail capacity to reduce truck use of highways
   • Remove bottleneck
2. Operate existing capacity more efficiently:
   • Enhance Access management
   • Anticipate and address special events that cause surges in traffic
   • Enhance freight management
   • Convert streets to one-way operations
   • Faster and anticipatory responses to traffic incidents
   • Geometric improvements to roads and intersections
   • Identify weather and road surface problems
   • Improve management of work zones
   • Increase efficiency of interchanges
   • Increase transit accessibility
   • Optimize the timing of traffic signals
   • Provide travelers with information on travel conditions
   • Provide real-time information on transit schedules and arrivals
   • Regulate the flow of traffic entering freeways (metering traffic onto freeways)
   • Restrict turns at key intersections
3. Encourage congestion reducing strategies: 
   • Encourage non-motorized commuting
   • Encourage flexible work hours
   • Encourage transit use
   • Encourage ridesharing
   • Encourage telecommuting 

Learn More:

• Freeway Travel Time Study June 2011 (24.5 MB)
• Congestion Management Process - Future Traffic Congestion (10.26 MB-October 2014)
• Congestion Management Process - Existing Traffic Congestion  (3.4 MB - July 2014)
• Congestion Management System Manual of Practice (September 2002 - 928 KB)