2008 Maryland Highway Mobility Survey
The Maryland State Highway Administration, the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, and the Maryland Transportation Authority work together to monitor highway traffic flow throughout the State of Maryland. Fast-moving aircraft document the location, severity and cause of highway bottlenecks using time-lapse aerial photography. Survey flights are conducted once every three years, from which traffic flow performance ratings are derived. A database of these ratings is maintained to track mobility improvements and degradations between survey years. This information is used to support a data-driven project selection process, and to evaluate the effectiveness of projects to restore or maintain highway mobility. Information generated through this program has been compiled into a comprehensive set of digital products and reports. This interactive slide show provides access to these materials:
The Congestion Maps and Photos box is the primary user interface. It contains interactive "bottleneck maps" that display where congestion was found in the region; these maps also serve as a tool to access highlight aerial photography and information about each congested bottleneck.
The Survey Data page provides access to the underlying survey database. Link-by- link performance rating tables and graphics can be dynamically generated for any surveyed highway for any year or set of years; this page also allows customized data export from the database with user-selected filters.
The Survey Information page provides additional background information, performance rating definitions, and describes the underlying methodology.
The Additional Resources page provides the following:
- Region-wide bottleneck maps suitable for poster-sized printing on digital plotters
- PDF copies of all reports submitted during the course of this program.
Collectively, these resources comprise a toolkit to provide data, photographs and graphics for papers and digital presentations about regional mobility issues.
Questions: This program is directed and managed in part by the SHA Office of Planning and Preliminary Engineering, Highway Information Services Division. Questions about the program should be directed to HISD Chief Michael Baxter at mbaxter@sha.state.md.us, or 410-545-5514. This program is executed by Skycomp, Inc., which can be contacted at 410-884-6900.