Transportation Performance Management

Federal transportation bills Moving Ahead for Progress-21st Century (MAP-21) and Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST Act) required Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to conduct performance based planning and focus on achieving performance outcomes. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) defines Transportation Performance Management (TPM) as a strategic approach that uses system information to make investment and policy decisions to achieve national performance goals. TPM’s key characteristics can be summarized as follows:

• Is systematically applied, a regular ongoing process
• Provides key information to help decision makers to understand the consequences of investment decisions across transportation assets or modes
• Improving communications between decision makers, stakeholders and the traveling public
• Ensuring targets and measures are developed in cooperative partnerships and based on data and objective information. (Source: FHWA Performance Transportation Management)

There are five groupings of performance measures: three groupings mandated by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and two by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).  The three FHWA measure groupings are Safety, Pavement and Bridges, and System Performance. The two FTA measure groupings are Transportation Asset Management (TAM) and Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP). They are required of both state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations, which will work together towards meeting these targets. If state DOT’s and MPO’s do not comply, federal funding for state and local transportation projects may be affected. The regulatory basis of the performance measures can be found in Chapter 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 490 (23 CFR Part 490).

Safety Performance Targets (PM1) 

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), in cooperation with the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), is required to set five annual Safety Performance Management Targets (SPMTs) for all public roads in the State of California by August 31 of each year.  This is pursuant to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21, P.L. 112-141). The Safety Performance Management Final Rule adds Part 490 to Title 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations to implement the performance management requirements in 23 U.S.C. 150. 

Performance Measures (Annual Targets) - 5  targets

The Madera CTC supports the State targets and methodology for the 2020 target setting period. 

Links

Caltrans Strategic Highway Safety Plan

Safety Performance Measures Fact Sheet

FHWA Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP)

FHWA State Safety Performance Dashboard and Reports

Pavement and Bridge Performance Targets (PM2) 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published in the Federal register (82 FR 5886) a final rule establishing performance measures for State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) to use in managing pavement and bridge performance on the National Highway System (NHS). The National Performance Management Measures; Assessing Pavement Condition for the National Highway Performance Program and Bridge Condition for the National Highway Performance Program Final Rule addresses requirements established by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21stCentury Act (MAP-21) and reflects passage of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act.

Links

FHWA PM2 and PM3

Caltrans Transportation Asset Management

Pavement Performance Measures Fact Sheet

Bridge Performance Measures Fact Sheet

Performance Measures 

Madera CTC supports the statewide targets set by Caltrans. 

System Performance/Freight/CMAQ Targets (PM3)

On January 18, 2017, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published a final rule in the Federal Register (82 FR 5970) that established performance measures that State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) will use to report on the performance of the Interstate and Non-Interstate National Highway System (NHS) to carry out the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP); freight movement on the Interstate system to carry out the National Highway Freight Program (NHFP); and traffic congestion and on-road mobile source emissions for the purpose of carrying out the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program. The rule addressed requirements established by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), and included six national performance measures related to System Performance, as follows:

Performance Measures 

MPO Target Due Date: 11/16/2018 (Completed 10/16/2018)

Madera CTC supports the statewide targets set by Caltrans.

Transit Asset Management

The public transit operators, in 2018, have adopted Transit Asset Management plans, which are available from transit operators. Transit Asset Management category projects could also be supported by state, local, and other federal funding sources (e.g., flexible CMAQ and RSTP). The funding and the program of projects in the TIP will enable the local transit operators to achieve their respective transit asset management performance targets. 

Notes: ULB= Useful Life Benchmark

Links

FTA Transit Asset Management Performance Measures Fact Sheet

TAM targets adopted October, 2018.

Transit Safety

On July 19, 2018, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP) Final Rule, 49 CFR Part 673, which requires certain federal fund recipients to develop a safety plan. The rule applies to all transit operators who are direct recipients or sub-recipients under FTA’s Urbanized Area Formula Program (FTA Section 5307). The PTASP rule became effective July 19, 2019; however, due to the COVID pandemic, FTA has extended the compliance deadline from July 20, 2020 to December 31, 2020. As the pandemic continues, FTA extended this deadline once more to July 21.  Each transit operator must establish and self-certify its initial PTASP by the deadline and re-certify its plan on an annual basis thereafter. As part of the PTASP, each transit agency must establish safety performance targets to address the safety performance measures identified in the National Public Transportation Safety Plan. The safety performance targets are included as part of the transit agencies strategies for minimizing the exposure of the public, personnel, and property to unsafe conditions. Safety targets must be broken down by mode and address the following:

1. Fatalities (total)
2. Fatalities (Rate)
3. Injuries (total)
4. Injuries (Rate)
5. Safety Events (total)
6. Safety events (Rate)
7. System reliability (VRM/failures)

Once established, the PTASP must be submitted to the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). The MPO must accept each transit operators targets or set its own for the region.

The City of Madera is the only public transit agency that will set Safety targets in the Madera Region. The City of Madera City Council approved their PTASP targets for their service area December 18th, 2020 and transmitted their self-certified PTASP for the Madera Metro to the Madera County Transportation Commission and to Caltrans Department of Transportation, December 21, 2020. The Madera County Transportation Commission adopted the same targets as the City of Madera on May 19th, 2021.

Links

FTA Public Transportation Safety Program Fact Sheet

Madera Metro Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan

For more information about how the Madera County Transportation Commission addresses each Performance Management Group, please click here.