Deploy system-wide data integration and conduct a data quality assessment to support the successful development and operation of an integrated corridor.
Project Evaluated ITS Enhancements for a Smart Corridor between Nashville and Murfreesboro.
Tennessee, United States
Evaluating the Impacts of I-24 Smart Corridor Strategies
Summary Information
Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) launched the I-24 Smart Corridor Project, which covers the area between Nashville and Murfreesboro. It includes I-24, the parallel SR-10, and connector routes between them. The goal of the project was to increase travel time reliability, increase mobility, reduce crash concentrations, and develop agency coordination. The project included various strategies including signal system upgrades, integrated emergency pull-offs, ramp extensions, connected vehicle infrastructure, new radar detection system (RDS) stations, dynamic message signs, lane control signs (LCS), variable speed limits (VSL), and integrated corridor management (ICM). These strategies were deployed between 2018 and 2025. Additional future components included ramp metering and choice lanes. The objective of this study was to identify performance measures and the necessary data to determine the impacts of the strategies deployed as part of the I-24 Smart Corridor.
The study noted the following lessons learned:
- Highlight a corridor as an interdependent system and conduct ongoing public outreach, education, and sentiment monitoring to guide outreach and operational refinements. Project findings emphasized that understanding traveler perceptions and educating road users about VSL/LCS operations can improve compliance.
- Deploy system-wide data integration and conduct a data quality assessment to support the successful development and operation of the Smart Corridor. Evaluation of the project showed legacy RDS data did not fully capture pre-implementation traffic conditions, requiring use of third-party probe data for analysis. Fragmented and inconsistent data across multiple databases can also limit performance evaluations.
- Establish a centralized data-sharing framework across agencies and divisions. Project evaluations found that operational data were often managed by external consultants and contractors, which sometimes made access to critical data more challenging for independent assessments.
- Coordinate targeted enforcement strategies during congestion periods to improve compliance with VSL/LCS operations. Driver compliance is critical to achieving the intended safety and mobility benefits, and that limited enforcement may reduce the effectiveness of the ICM system over time as drivers become accustomed to disregarding displayed speed limits.
- Continuously monitor system performance and refine operational strategies over time. Project evaluations found that the VSL/LCS system helped curb previous trends of increasing travel times and declining travel time reliability, suggesting that ongoing optimization could further improve corridor performance as drivers become more familiar with the system.
