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Regional Workshop on Performance-based Planning and Programming - Workshop Summary

2. Current Practices in the Southeast

This section highlights some of the practices in performance-based planning and programming currently implemented by state DOTs, MPOs, and transit agencies that participated in the workshop. The Colorado DOT and a panel of representatives from the Utah DOT, the Wasatch Front Range Council, and the Utah Transit Authority shared their experiences with performance based approaches with the group. A brief summary of each presentation is presented here.

Colorado DOT, Performance Measurement at Work

Sandi Kohrs, Colorado DOT Planning and Performance Branch Manager welcomed all participants to the workshop. Mrs. Kohrs highlighted the enterprise management approach the agency is currently pursuing and how the agency is actively linking performance measures within their long range planning effort. Scott Richrath of the Colorado DOT’s Performance and Policy Analysis Unit briefly presented on the state’s evolving approach to measuring performance across the agency. Mr. Richrath focused on the use of performance measurement tools and a performance based planning framework to support the state long range plan and statewide transportation goals. Key points from the presentation included:

• CDOT’s senior management and advisory committee set aspirational goals through policy documents. These goals intend to describe what the Transportation Commission seeks to deliver to the public, regardless of resources. CDOT then measures actual performance against those goals through annual performance reports and newly developed technical tools to track whether the agency is falling short or gaining ground.
• CDOT is also focusing on performance-based planning components within the current update to the statewide long range transportation plan for 2040. This plan will include desired statewide outcomes that are linked to corridor-level goals and strategies, which are in turn intended to be aligned with MPO performance measures and CDOT’s internal measures. Together these measures will align with Federal funding programs and priorities.
• The agency is adopting a multi-asset management system, or enterprise approach to performance measurement that tracks a wide variety of measures in pavement, bridge, maintenance/level of service, fleet maintenance, and intelligent transportation solutions strategies.
• This enterprise approach will leverage technology and web-based reporting platforms to enable comprehensive reporting, ensure integrity, better integrate across the agency, and endure staff turnover.
• Reports can be produced in this platform that track spending in budget program categories against reported performance measures. For example, safety program expenditures can be tracked against fatalities or VMT.
• One challenge to this approach is that while safety outcomes and spending can be charted together this doesn’t indicate a correlation and may not be statistically rigorous. Many agencies will face challenges identifying variables that are directly associated with DOT actions and those that the agency may not have any control over. CDOT recognizes this but believes it is important to show progress toward those things that the public cares about.

Utah Department of Transportation, Technologies to Advance Performance Based Planning Approaches

John Thomas, Director of Planning for the Utah DOT introduced the workshop panelists from Utah and described how the state, MPOs, and transit agencies are working together. He also introduced the major theme of the panel which will focus on tools, processes, and projects currently being applied in the state. Some key points from the presentation included:

• UDOT sponsored the development of UPlan, a web-based interactive GIS mapping and data-sharing tool created to improve data management and collaboration across the agency.
• UPlan provides a collaborative, common, and integrated software program that helps organize data internally at the agency, as well as enabling the public and other stakeholders to view and use that data. Where data may have been produced once and then buried, or not shared across divisions, it can now be used to produce GIS maps on the fly and used by others for analysis and communications.
• For example, the state’s 2040 unified transportation plan can be viewed, leveraged, and reported on – right from the web. This system allows for environmental, safety, performance, and condition measures to be viewed and reports created, which allows the agency and partners to leverage multiple data sources in performance measurement and prioritization processes.
• Importantly, the ability to visualize and view data spatially, even in 3D in Google Earth has enhanced the agency’s ability to communicate with the Transportation Commission, state legislators, stakeholders, and the public. Technology has replaced the traditional three-ring binders for distributing and displaying information. In doing so, UDOT found that UPlan enhanced the level of interest and engagement among Commission members and public stakeholders.
• AASHTO is sponsoring a demonstration pilot program so that 14 participating states may work with the UPlan tool and learn from Utah’s experiences. These states will learn how this framework can work for their agency and explore technologies and applications for making data more widely available. A national mapping project will also seek to integrate data from Central Federal Lands and other FHWA divisions.

Wasatch Front Range Council, A Common Framework for Regional Performance Measures

Ned Hacker, Planning Manager with the Wasatch Front Range Council spoke to the MPO perspective of working with the Utah DOT and stakeholders to further integrate performance measures into planning activities. Some key points from the presentation included:

• Wasatch Front Range Council (WFRC) has a long history incorporating performance measures into regional plans and policies. The MPOs new 2040 long range plan continues the practice of evaluating progress toward the region’s 2005 growth principles with more specific goals and performance indices. The 2040 plan includes common measures that are integrated into Regional Transportation Plan evaluation criteria and are linked to regional land use and visioning goals, transit agency goals, MPO scenario planning goals, state, and new federal goals. A matrix was displayed showing these linkages.
• The MPO is working with the Utah DOT and Utah Transit Authority (UTA) to align goals and projects and to identify common performance measures. A Performance Management Advisory Committee was established that includes UDOT, UTA, the state’s four MPOs, and other stakeholders. This group is working to mesh the region’s broad growth principles with more detailed performance measures.
• Transportation partners will face challenges reaching consensus on which measures best support which goals. Even more challenging are measures that can be tied explicitly to project evaluation and program monitoring to measure success of regional planning.

 Utah Transit Authority, Performance Management Approaches

Hal Johnson, Project Development Manager with the Utah Transit Authority provided an overview of the agency’s current performance measurement tools and examples of how measurement improved services and aided decision making. Some key points from the presentation included:

• The Utah Transit Authority implemented a performance management system known as the Service Standards Initiative. This effort uses performance measures to better understand drivers of effectiveness and to examine system improvements.
• The initiative focuses on a series of broad, but meaningful measures (e.g. reliability, customer service, seat availability standards, on-time performance, and land use) to track trends over time and compare efficiency and identify needed improvements in service.
• The agency utilizes this data-driven management approach to inform decision makers, communicate with stakeholders, and interact with employees. For example, tracking on-time performance of buses in real time did not lead directly to service improvements until the agency worked to communicate that data to drivers and provided on-board schedule alerts. Those efforts lead to direct improvements in level of service.
• UTA can also compare cost per boarding measures to other major systems across the country and other key metrics to communicate the efficiency of service and identify areas for improvement.
• Without service standards in place and consistent accountability and decision making abilities UTA would not have been equipped to improve service, achieve results, focus less in operations, and invest more in major capital projects.
• The Service Standards Initiative tool has provided to be useful for communicating with elected officials and local governments. The agency is now looking into an expanded effort to measure and evaluate land use and urban design principles when planning capital investments.

Other Best Practices of Workshop Participants

In addition to speakers and panelists, workshop participants identified a number of other applications of performance-based planning and programming within their own agencies. When queried, about half of attendees indicated their agency used some sort of performance based approach, but of those that did, relatively few believe that this information is used in decision-making processes.

• Capital Metro in Austin, Texas indicated that they instituted a performance measurement process in response to community and leadership concerns. The agency has also institutionalized a pre-post evaluation of expected level of service outcomes which has been welcomed by the Board and helped improve trust with leadership and stakeholders.
• The Omaha MPO, MAPA, is trying an approach of identifying common measures that are to be included with project submittals. If data collection costs are captured in submitted project totals, it is more likely that better, more consistent, and more reliable measures will be available.
• The Regional Transportation Commission in Southern Nevada indicated that it has successfully implemented robust data collection and an automated reporting process for incidents and travel volumes and mobility measures. The organization uses this information to plan investments and determine if projects are likely to mitigate delay or further goals.
• The Maricopa Association of Governments in Arizona established a regional framework for performance measurement that included congestion management process (CMP) criteria in project applications. The organization is encountering coordination challenges and limited resources, but sees opportunities in other areas and is now acquiring private speed data to fulfill performance measurement needs.
• Other MPOs and states indicated that they tracked and reported other common infrastructure measures (e.g., pavement and bridge conditions), but that those data were not often used in prioritization or project selection decisions.
• A few participants indicated that they collected performance measures at small scales, but without a coordinated or integrated approach because of a lack of resources.