Research by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has quantified the cost of congestion to the trucking industry at $49.6 billion in 2014. But adding capacity is costly—and highway funding has been very hard to come by in recent years. Still, the problem doesn't have to get worse before it gets better. Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) is one tool that holds great promise for addressing urban congestion, and ATRI is working to improve traffic flow and keep trucks moving.
ATRI, the research arm of the American Trucking Assns., recently led the development of two primers for the U.S. Department of Transportation's ICM program. The vision of ICM is for transportation networks to realize significant improvements in the efficient movement of people and goods through integrated, proactive management of existing infrastructure along major corridors. Working through an ICM approach, transportation professionals manage the corridor as a multimodal system and make operational benefits for the benefit of the corridor as a whole.
“You’ve got major corridors, and you’ve got cities and states operating that infrastructure and different assets along that infrastructure,” ATRI President Rebecca Brewster told Fleet Owner. “This is just a way to get all of those folks to work together so that these trucking corridors work more efficiently. It’s a more coordinated approach.”
Integrated Corridor Management and Freight Opportunities examines how freight can be incorporated into an ICM approach as well as the benefits of ICM in addressing many of the challenges in moving freight through major corridors. Integrated Corridor Management and Traffic Incident Management describes how traffic incident management (TIM) can be incorporated into ICM as well as detailing the many benefits that ICM brings to the advancement of TIM programs.
Both primers are available on ATRI's website.
