The purpose of a Complete Corridor is to provide a variety of travel choices, while using technology to efficiently balance how people use the roadway network. As a part of a multimodal transportation system, Complete Corridors feature highways and major roads that are connected through technology and managed in real-time, in order to ensure that people and goods move efficiently and safely. Complete Corridors balance the need for dedicated spaces for cars, transit vehicles, shared mobility options, bike riders, pedestrians, commercial vehicles, and other Flexible Fleets such as electric scooters, small transit shuttles, and rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft. 

Complete Corridors are most effective when applied systemwide to regional highways and major roads that connect to Mobility Hubs, while also supporting the Transit Leap and Flexible Fleets initiatives of the 5 Big Moves. The Next OS initiative of the 5 Big Moves allows for a seamlessly managed system of Complete Corridors, across jurisdictions and modes of travel, to create the best user experience. Complete Corridor solutions can adapt to changing traffic conditions, while also helping to manage roadways to achieve specific goals and objectives over time.

Download an informational flier about Complete Corridors (English | Español).
View the 5 Big Moves glossary of terms (English | Español). 

Complete Corridors Webinar

On June 26, 2019, SANDAG hosted a webinar about features and anticipated benefits of Complete Corridors with industry experts Ben Sumers from McKinsey & Company and Jonathon Hart from CDM Smith. View the webinar recording and explore how technology, policy, and connected infrastructure can lead to less highway congestion while continuing to grow as a region. Closed captions are available in English and Spanish.

View responses to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) from this webinar and learn more about the 5 Big Moves webinar series.

Features

• Managed Lanes

  Managed Lanes are designed to give priority access to transit, carpool, and vanpool users. They also offer single drivers who are willing to pay for shorter travel time access to these lanes for a fee.  

• Active Transportation and Demand Management (ATDM)

  ADTM uses technology and data to optimize mobility on the roadway network. The goal is to move people more efficiently through active routing, lane assignments, variable speed lanes, providing advanced warnings about stopped or slow traffic, and adjusting user pricing based on changing conditions. ATDM also provides real-time travel information to help them decide how, where, and when to travel.

• Connected vehicles and infrastructure
  Smart signals and high-speed communication networks allow connected vehicles, smartphones, and smart roads to communicate and share data with one another in order to reduce collisions and improve travel times. 

• Priority for transit, active transportation, and shared mobility

  Dedicated lanes with smart intersections give priority to transit, bike riders, pedestrians, and other shared mobility options. The result is faster, safer, and more reliable mobility for these modes of travel.   

• Curb management
  Curb space can be managed to accommodate multiple uses, including passenger pick-up and drop-off, commercial deliveries, bikes and pedestrians, transit, and Flexible Fleets, for different times and levels of traffic. 

• Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure
  Public charging and hydrogen fueling stations help support California's shift toward plug-in electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles. 
  
  

Anticipated Benefits

Complete Corridors offer an integrated approach toward maximizing mobility. It emphasizes making transportation improvements that benefit the entire system, and all modes of travel.

• Increased roadway capacity
  Managed Lanes, like those along the Interstate 15 corridor, encourage people to use of high-occupancy vehicles. The aim is to increase roadway capacity and reduce traffic congestion. 

• Reduced congestion and air pollution

  With fewer traffic jams and idling, more zero emission vehicles, and a larger share of the population using high-occupancy modes of travel, Complete Corridors can help reduce congestion and air pollution, provide alternatives to driving alone, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

• Travel time savings

  Using ATDM strategies has reduced travel times by more than 10%. Connected vehicles could increase overall network capacity by up to 25%, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Beyond Traffic 2045 Report. 

• Increased transit ridership

  Congestion pricing has resulted in significant shifts to transit in cities such as London and Stockholm. Bus delays in central London dropped 50% after pricing was introduced, and there was a 7% rise in bus ridership. In Stockholm, daily transit use increased by 40,000 riders, and ridership on inner-city bus routes rose 9%.

• Improved safety
  ATDM strategies have reduced crashes up to 30% and dangerous driving maneuvers up to 80%. During natural disasters and other emergency situations, real-time management of the transportation system can reroute traffic so people can avoid dangerous driving conditions and optimize roadway use during evacuations. Dedicated spaces for bikes, pedestrians, and low speed shared vehicles also improve safety for these modes of travel.

• Maximize existing infrastructure
  The Complete Corridors is designed to maximize the use of existing roadways, and it offers an alternative to expanding them. Experience and research have shown that expanding roadways ultimately leads to more traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the 26-lane Katy Freeway in the Houston area is the widest freeway in North America. This $2.8 billion mega-project was intended to alleviate severe traffic congestion, but congestion actually worsened and travel times increased 30% during the morning commute and 55% during the evening commute.
  
  

Success Stories and Related Links

• Oregon’s 217 Active Traffic Management (ATM) project resulted in 7% reduction in average travel time, and travel time reliability improved by 50% while traffic volumes increased 9%.
• Collisions on Interstate 5 in Washington State decreased 65 to 75% along a 7.5-mile corridor where an ATM system was deployed.
• In Austin, Texas, use of ATDM strategies and variable speed limits resulted in 17% reduction in air pollution.