SYSTEM PERFORMANCE MONITORING AND
THE TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PROCESS

This section explains how the Boston Region MPO’s Congestion Management System has been shaped to serve the needs of the Boston Region MPO’s transportation planning activities.

The focus of the CMS is on identifying mobility concerns in order to support multimodal improvements to the transportation system. Mobility concerns are identified using field-collected data combined with complementary information from existing sources. The monitoring effort provides data and information to be used by planners and decision-makers for project planning, prioritizing, and programming.

This exercise helps CTPS analysts to formulate recommendations for strategies, programs, and planning studies—basically proposing the next course of action to address the mobility concerns. In some cases, a planning study, which entails analyzing a facility or area in great detail, is best applied. In other cases, a project that will address a mobility concern is in the works, but needs to be programmed in the TIP; thus CMS data can be provided to select the facilities and areas most in need of improvements. In some cases, a mobility concern is identified that warrants a long-term goal or broad-scope policy to address the concern; the goal or policy can then be adopted in the long-range Regional Transportation Plan.

In short, the monitoring effort addresses the question, How is the region doing regarding congestion and mobility? The CMS recommendations answer the question, What can be done to address congestion and mobility concerns in the region?