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Mobility Monitoring – Overview
OVERVIEW • REGIONAL TRENDS • ROADWAYS • INTERSECTIONS • TRANSIT
BICYCLE/PEDESTRIAN • HOV LANES • TRAVEL DEMAND MANAGEMENT • PARK-AND-RIDE
The Boston Region MPO´s Mobility Management System (MMS) monitors the performance of transportation facilities in the MPO area, including freeways, arterial roadways, intersections, transit, park-and-ride lots, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, and bicycle and pedestrian transportation. This monitoring provides the MPO with the most recent performance information and leads to recommendations for action when congestion and other mobility deficiencies are found.

Generally, recommendations fall into three areas:
  • Proposals for the detailed study of a location, corridor, or area in the MPO region
  • Proposals for the introduction of new programs or services
  • Prioritization of transportation needs to be considered in the project evaluation processes of the Transportation Plan and the Transportation Improvement Program
The impetus for developing and operating the MMS, formerly known as the Congestion Management System (CMS), began with the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) in 1991. ISTEA required metropolitan planning organizations covering areas with populations greater than 200,000 to implement a CMS. It also required that, for metropolitan areas that do not meet the national ambient air quality standards (the Boston region does not meet them), capacity-increasing projects for single-occupant vehicles be part of an approved CMS.
In the metropolitan planning provisions of the more recent Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), adopted in 2005, the development of a CMS—a Congestion Management Process (CMP) in the new legislation—continues to be an important requirement. In addition, SAFETEA-LU emphasizes several areas that all CMPs should focus on. A CMP should:
  • Identify the causes of recurring and nonrecurring congestion
  • Be driven by measurable objectives and performance measures
  • Be multimodal for improving the mobility of people and freight
  • Result in congestion-reducing strategies that are reflected in the MPO´s Transportation Plan and Transportation Improvement Program
  • Contain management and operation strategies that improve the performance of the roadway network without increasing capacity