San Diego experiences significant traffic congestion during peak travel periods, has limited HOV and HOT lanes, and has limited transit capacity. The strong consortium of partnering agencies in San Diego is increasing multi-jurisdictional and multi-agency collaboration on corridor management. Together, they are introducing dynamic ramp metering to reduce arterial spillover and they are looking to collect arterial data to support efficient signal timing strategies. This ICM team is implementing dynamic variable pricing along 21 miles of managed lanes and pioneering congestion avoidance awards.

The San Diego I-15 ICM corridor was chosen as a site for Analysis, Modeling and Simulation (AMS) of ICM strategies.  Check back in mid-2010 for updates on this site’s Experimental Plans and early results.

San Diego has also been selected for the Demonstration Phase of the ICM Initiative. Look for more information in late 2010 on their demonstration plan, strategies, and next steps!

More on San Diego, California's ICM Corridor:

The San Diego, California application proposed I-15 from SR 52 in San Diego to SR 78 in Escondido as their corridor. The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) was the lead agency, accompanied by Caltrans, the City of San Diego, the City of Escondido, the City of Poway, the Metropolitan Transit System, and the North County Transit District.

Concept of Operations and System Requirements

• Concept of Operations for the I-15 Corridor in San Diego, California
• System Requirement Specification for the I-15 Integrated Corridor Management System (ICMS) in San Diego, California

ITS Assets and ICM Strategy

The following are ITS assets that the San Diego Pioneer Site will leverage in their ICMS:

• Dynamic ramp metering
• Changeable message signs (CMS)
• Dynamic variable pricing along 21 miles of managed lanes

San Diego plans to evaluate the following ICM strategies in the I-15 corridor:

• En-Route Traveler Information
• Pre-Trip Traveler Information
• Signal Priority for Transit
• Freeway Coordinated Ramp Metering
• Signal Coordination on Arterials with Freeway Ramp Metering
• Congestion Pricing on Managed Lanes
• Physical Bus Priority on Arterials
• Increased HOV Occupancy Requirements

Analysis, Modeling and Simulation Development

The USDOT developed the ICM AMS methodology to help transportation decision-makers identify the best ICM strategies for their needs under different conditions (such as planned special events, high traffic congestion, or major incidents). The AMS approach was designed to leverage the strengths of various analysis tools, such as travel demand models. The ICM AMS methodology can support corridor management planning, design, and operations by integrating macro-, meso- and microscopic simulation tool types and combining their capabilities.

San Diego is modeling the following ICM scenarios to look at how ICM would influence the behaviors in the corridor:

• Daily Operations (No Incident)
• Major Freeway Incident
• Major Arterial Incident
• Transit Incident
• Special Event
• Disaster Response Scenario

In order to determine the effectiveness of each of these strategies, San Diego is using the following performance measures:

• Travel Time
• Delay
• Throughput
• Reliability and Variance of Travel Time
• Safety
• Emissions and Fuel Consumption

Related Links

• The Regional Perspective Presentation from 2009 Integrated Corridor System Management Modeling Best Practices Workshop
• San Diego I-15 Integrated Corridor Management Project Presentation at the Multimodal Integrated Corridor Management Workshop

Demonstration Overview

The ICM demonstration will showcase the application of institutional, operational and technical integration approaches in the field and document implementation issues and operational benefits in order to show the benefits of ICM through improvement in corridor performance using realistic and useful metrics and to provide the documentation necessary to transfer the ICM concepts from successful ICMS deployments to future ICM adopters.  Data from the demonstrations will be used to refine the AMS models and methodology.

ICM Strategies Planned for Demonstration 

• Real-time traveler information about traffic and travel times, public transit, and parking availability to promote mode-shift through the internet and dynamic message signage along the corridor.
• A "smart" transportation management system will leverage ITS investments in the corridor and combine road sensors, video and traveler information to reduce congestion.
• The ICMS will also support the coordination of incident management efforts along the corridor.
• Traffic Signal Timing and Coordination along the corridor, including ramp metering.
• A DSS will provide operators with real-time simulation, predictive algorithms and analysis modeling, along with an integrated workflow engine to enhance control.