Purpose
The Congestion Management Process (CMP) is a joint effort of the Metropolitan Council, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), and the counties and cities throughout the region. The resulting plan, process, and evaluation will identify and shape projects designed to improve highway safety and make it easier for everyone to move around the region.
The process will result in two guiding documents:
- A policy and procedures handbook that defines congestion, outlines the CMP objectives, establishes the CMP network, and defines multimodal performance measures
- A Transportation Trends Report to track the effectiveness of the implemented CMP strategies, and to evaluate trends and conditions for the transportation system in the CMP study area
The CMP Model
The CMP observes the eight-step framework for federal compliance:
- Develop Regional Objectives: Objectives should help reach the congestion management goals.
- Define CMP Network: The CMP must define both a geographic scope and system elements for analysis.
- Develop Multimodal Performance Measures: The CMP must define the measures that will monitor and measure congestion on a regional and local scale.
- Collect Data/Monitor System Performance: There must be a plan to collect and analyze data to evaluate the defined performance measures.
- Analyze Congestion Problems and Needs: The CMP must define how congestion issues will be analyzed, presented and anticipated.
- Identify and Assess Strategies: There must be a toolbox for selecting congestion mitigation strategies and evaluating potential benefits at congested locations.
- Program and Implement Strategies: There must be a plan for implementing the CMP as part of the regional transportation planning process.
- Evaluate Strategy Effectiveness: The strategies must be regularly monitored to gauge the effectiveness.
The process model is built on activities or “actions” that are common to successful CMPs, and at a basic level must be implemented to comply with federal regulations. The actions, however, may be integrated into the MPO planning process in many different ways, providing a flexible framework from which MPOs can develop an individualized CMP approach.
For more in-depth information on the model, see the Federal Highway Administration Congestion Management Guidebook, Chapter 2 – Process Model.