Guest Editorial
Focusing on Performance Management
 The highway system in the United States is critical to
the Nation's vitality, economic growth, and overall well-being. This system,
which serves billions of trips by highway users annually, is recognized as one
of the preeminent roadway networks in the world. The National Highway System, a
critical component of that network, stretches more than 160,000 route miles
(256,000 kilometers) around the country. It includes the interstate system as
well as other routes essential to national defense, mobility, and commerce.
Although the system represents only 4 percent of the Nation's highway mileage,
it supports nearly 45 percent of travel on U.S. roadways.
For this system to continue to serve the Nation and the
global economy, it must provide for safe, efficient, and effective travel.
Achieving this outcome has become a greater challenge today as the system ages
and highway agencies with dwindling financial resources are stretched to
maintain and upgrade it. Recognizing this challenge, many States, local
agencies, and planning organizations have embraced the concepts of performance
management. They have established clear performance goals for the system and
are using sound performance metrics to drive their investment and strategic
decisionmaking.
State department of transportation publications, such as
Washington State's Measures,
Markers and Mileposts (The Gray Notebook) report; Missouri's Tracker report and tool; and
San Francisco, CA's long-range plan, Transportation
2035 Plan for the San Francisco Bay Area: Change in Motion, are all examples of
deliberate efforts to plan, program, and track highway investments and
strategies to achieve desired performance outcomes.
This same commitment to performance management is also
critical today at the national level to ensure that performance outcomes are
achieved for the National Highway System and other significant roadway systems.
Applying performance management concepts at the national level will challenge
Federal, State, and local agencies to work together to invest in the highway
system to achieve national performance expectations. The National Surface
Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, formed under the Safe,
Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act -- A Legacy for
Users (SAFETEA-LU), recognized this need and challenge by stating, "Developing
performance standards and integrating them into a performance-driven regimen
that would be applicable to all States and metropolitan areas will be a
challenge since local conditions are so different, but the rewards will be
worth the effort."
To overcome
these challenges, the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit
Administration are partnering with the American Association of State Highway
and Transportation Officials, Association of Metropolitan Planning
Organizations, American Public Transportation Association, and other
organizations to take the necessary steps today to bridge gaps that are
preventing transportation agencies from managing performance effectively at a
national level. These steps include the development of consistent performance
metrics, new performance modeling tools, improved information and management
systems, new benefit/cost methodologies and tools, more cost-effective and
reliable equipment for monitoring performance, and improved analytical and
reporting tools.
Together, the completion of these
efforts will enable Federal, State, and local agencies and planning
organizations to work collaboratively to optimize available resources in a
manner that maximizes performance outcomes for the highway system. These
initiatives will enable the agencies to speak collectively, as a Nation, on how
the transportation community can improve and sustain the performance of the
U.S. highway system.
Peter J. Stephanos, P.E.
Director, Office of Pavement Technology
Federal Highway Administration
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