Atlanta Congestion Reduction Demonstration: National Evaluation Plan

This report provides an analytic framework for evaluating the Atlanta Congestion Reduction Demonstration (CRD) under the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) Urban Partnership Agreement (UPA) and CRD Programs. The Atlanta CRD projects include the conversion of lanes for high occupancy vehicle with a minimum of two occupants (HOV2+) on approximately 16-miles of I-85 to high occupancy toll (HOT)/HOV3+ lanes along with expansion and enhancement of transit service in that corridor, including new and expanded park-and-ride lots. The Atlanta CRD national evaluation plan identifies major questions to be answered through the evaluation, the evaluation analyses to be used to address those questions, and the data needed for the analyses. It also outlines the test plans that will be used to collect and analyze the required data. The evaluation plan is based on the National Evaluation Framework (NEF) prepared for the U.S. DOT. Four objective questions that were posed by U.S. DOT serve as a starting point for the NEF and Atlanta Evaluation Plan. These questions are how much congestion was reduced; what contributed to the reduction and what were the associated impacts; what lessons were learned about non-technical factors for success; and what were the overall cost and benefit of the congestion reduction strategies. The four objective questions were translated into twelve evaluation analyses, which in turn consist of hypotheses and questions, measures of effectiveness (MOEs), and data required for the MOEs. This document presents the plan for evaluating the Atlanta CRD projects