National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: References
Page 74
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 74
Page 75
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 75
Page 76
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 76
Page 77
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 77
Page 78
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 78
Page 79
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 79
Page 80
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 80
Page 81
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 81
Page 82
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 82
Page 83
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 83
Page 84
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 84
Page 85
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - FTIS Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14402.
×
Page 85

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

74 Introduction TCRP Project’s G-11 peer-comparison and performance- measurement methodology has been incorporated into a Web- based software tool, the Integrated National Transit Database Analysis System (INTDAS) component of the FTIS. Despite its name, FTIS provides access to the complete publicly available portion of the NTD as well as to standardized national data added by TCRP Project G-11. Some data collected by the Federal Transit Administration for the NTD, such as safety and security data, are not released publicly and therefore are not available through FTIS. One can obtain an initial peer grouping with FTIS with just a few clicks of a mouse, although more work is usually necessary to conduct a secondary screening that will narrow the list of potential peers to one appropriate for the particular peer- comparison application being conducted. Once a final peer group is set, FTIS can be used to quickly find and export a variety of NTD-based performance measures as well create tables and graphs of the data. During the methodology testing conducted by TCRP Project G-11, transit agencies were able to perform a peer comparison in 16 person-hours or less, in- cluding the time required to learn to use the software. FTIS is sponsored by the Florida Department of Trans- portation’s Public Transit Office and is maintained by Florida International University (FIU). It is freely available to the public; however, a one-time free registration is required to gain access. The main FTIS page is at www.ftis.org; INTDAS is accessed at http://www.ftis.org/INTDAS/NTDLogin.aspx. These instructions provide a step-by-step description of how to use FTIS to form a peer group and obtain NTD performance data for the group. The instructions are intended to be used in combination with (a) the step-by-step description of the complete benchmarking methodology provided in Chapter 4 of this report, (b) online FTIS help, and (c) one’s spreadsheet software’s instructions. Screen shots shown in these instruc- tions reflect the online version of FTIS as of October 2009; the actual layout of screens may be somewhat different depending on any software updates that may have occurred since that time. In addition, screen content will vary depending on the user’s selections. • Users should be aware that FTIS automatically logs users out after a period of inactivity (as of November 2009, this was 15 minutes) to free up slots for other users. If a user is logged in and comes back after a period of inactivity, the user will be taken back to the log-in screen or, some- times, a server error may occur. In either case, the user could lose some work, so saving the peer group one is working with and exporting analysis results on a regular basis is recommended. Computer Requirements FTIS is designed for the Internet Explorer browser, Ver- sion 6 or later. Other popular web browsers may also work, but are not supported by FIU staff. A screen resolution of 1152 by 864 pixels or greater is recommended. A spreadsheet program is recommended for in-depth data analysis. FTIS data can be exported into several spreadsheet- readable formats. FTIS Within the Overall Benchmarking Process As described in Chapter 4, a complete transit bench- marking effort consists of eight steps. FTIS is used in Step 3: Establish a Peer Group and Step 4: Compare Performance. Before starting to use FTIS, the context of the benchmarking effort should be well-understood (Step 1) and a set of per- formance measures appropriate to the particular benchmark- ing application should have already been identified (Step 2). Figure A1 shows the five FTIS-related sub-steps described in A P P E N D I X A FTIS Instructions

75 these instructions and their relationship to the overall bench- marking process. Step-By-Step Instructions Step 3a: Register for FTIS The INTDAS component of FTIS is accessed at http://www. ftis.org/INTDAS/NTDLogin.aspx. Its login screen is shown in Figure A2. The site is password-protected; one should enter one’s password in the box shown with ➊ in Figure A2. If one is not already signed up as a user, request a free password by clicking on the “Access Request Form” link ➋ just above the password box. Users typically receive a password within one business day. Step 3b: Form an Initial Peer Group Identify the Target Agency After logging in, the INTDAS front page will appear, as shown in Figure A3. Click the “Select Peers” tab ➊ at the top of the screen shown in Figure A3 to move to the “Peers” screen, shown in Figure A4. 3a. Register for FTIS 3b. Form an initial peer group 3c. Perform secondary screening 4a. Identify performance measures 4b. Analyze performance Steps within FTISBenchmarking Process 1. Understand context 2. Develop performance measures 3. Establish a peer group 4. Compare performance 5. Contact best-practices peers 6. Develop implementation strategies 7. Implement the strategy 8. Monitor results Figure A1. Relationship of FTIS-implemented steps to the overall benchmarking process. 1 2 Figure A2. INTDAS login screen.

76 Enter the following settings on the “Peers” page shown in Figure A4: • Select “TCRP G-11 Method” ➊. • Select an agency by first choosing the state ➋ and then the agency name ➌ from the list of states. The number next to each agency’s name is the ID number assigned to that agency by the NTD. • Peer comparisons may be performed using agency-wide data (across all modes) or for a single specific mode. Select the desired type of comparison ➍. If the compari- son is to focus only on data for a single mode (e.g., light 1 Figure A3. INTDAS front page. 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 5 9 Figure A4. Peer selection screen.

rail), then select that mode from the adjacent drop-down menu ➎. • Select the data year used for the peer-grouping variables. Typically, the most recent year available would be selected ➏. • For most applications, check the “American Community Survey” option for urban area population ➐. However, if a forward-looking application is desired, where an agency is compared against larger peers to see where it might be in the future, a population can also be manually entered in the box provided ➑. • Click the “Find Peers” button ➒ to open a new page (Figure A5) containing a table showing the results of the peer grouping, including the variables and data used to develop the peer grouping. Select Potential Peers The selected (“target”) agency is listed in the top row of the table shown in Figure A5 ➊, with other agencies shown sorted by their “total likeness score” ➋ indicating their level of similarity with the target agency. Lower values indicate a greater level of similarity with the target agency. This listing can be opened in Microsoft Excel format (whether or not Excel is installed on the computer), and then saved in a variety of spreadsheet-readable formats. To do so, click the “Excel” button ➌ at the top of the page, select “Save As” from the “File” menu, name the export file, and select the file type to be exported. Performing this step allows digging deeper later on into the reasons why a particular agency was (or wasn’t) highly ranked as a potential peer, without having to re-create the process in FTIS. The Excel file can also be used to document the peer-grouping process. Optionally, use the checkboxes in the left-hand column ➍ to select agencies to include in the peer group. To save a peer group, click the “Save Peer Group” button at the top of the page ➎. A pop-window will appear, as shown in Figure A6. Either a user-defined number of top peers can be saved to the group (select button ➊), or just the peers that were previously checked (select button ➋). Provide a name for the peer group ➌ to identify it within FTIS. Finally, click the “Save” button to close the pop-up window ➍. • A minimum of four peers is recommended for an analysis, with 8–10 being a good upper number of peers to end up with. • The “total likeness score” indicates how similar a potential peer agency is to the target agency. A score ≤0.50 indicates a very good match, while a score of between 0.50 and 0.75 indicates a reasonably good match. Agencies with scores 1 4 2 536 Figure A5. Candidate peer group screen. 1 2 3 4 Figure A6. Save peer group window. 77

78 greater than 0.75 may still be acceptable matches but should be investigated more carefully as they may have significant differences in some areas that may make them unsuitable for a particular benchmarking application. • Agencies in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico will have relatively few peer agencies in their immediate vicinity, so their potential peers’ likeness scores will tend to be higher simply because they are located further away. The “total likeness score” ranges described above may need to be expanded for agencies in these regions. • Try to save more than 8–10 peers at this step if a secondary screening will be performed in the next step, in order to allow for some potential peers being filtered out during the secondary screening. However, if potential peers’ total like- ness scores are too high (e.g., higher than 1.00), indicating a great deal of dissimilarity with the target agency, it may not be possible to end up with the ideal number of peers. This is more likely to occur with very large agencies than with smaller agencies. Click the “<< Back” button (shown as ➏ in Figure A5) to return to the “Peers” page (don’t use the browser’s “Back” button). Select Agencies Select the “Select Groups” tab, shown as ➊ in Figure A7, where the just-saved group will now appear in the list of system groups ➋. (If one has never used FTIS before, it will be the only group listed.) Click the desired group’s name to select it. A list of the agencies in the group will appear in the “Select Systems” box in the lower-left corner of the window ➌. Select all of the agencies by clicking the “All” ➍ button; they will be copied over to the “Selected Systems” window ➎. Step 3c: Performing Secondary Screening Overview Some performance questions may require looking at a narrower set of potential peers than the TCRP Project G-11 methodology produces. For example, one case study described in this report involved an agency that did not have a dedicated local funding source and was interested in comparing itself to peers that did have that source of funding. Another case study involved an agency in a region that was about to reach 200,000 population (thus moving into a different funding category) and wanted to compare itself to peers that were already at 200,000 population or more. Some agencies may simply want to make sure that no peer agency is “too different” to be a po- tential peer for a particular application. Data contained in FTIS can often be used to perform these kinds of screenings. Other kinds of screening, for example based on agency policy or types of routes operated (e.g., commuter bus or BRT), will require Internet searches or agency contacts to obtain the information. Any desired screening factors should have already been deter- mined during Step 2. The general process to follow is to first identify how many peers would ideally end up in the peer group. For the sake 2 6 3 4 5 7 1 Figure A7. Select groups screen.

of this example, this number will be eight. Starting with the highest-ranked potential peer (i.e., the one with the lowest total likeness score), check whether the agency meets the secondary screening criteria. If the agency does not meet the criteria, replace it with the next available agency in the list that meets the screening criteria. For example, if the #1-ranked potential peer does not meet the criteria, check the #9-ranked agency next, then #10, and so on, until an agency is found that meets the criteria. Repeat the process with the #2-ranked potential peer. Continue until a group of eight peers that meets the secondary screening criteria is formed, or until a potential peer’s total likeness score becomes too high (e.g., is 1.00 or higher). Using NTD Forms for Screening The NTD forms are a quick way to check screening criteria that use NTD data. From the “Select Groups” form illustrated in Figure A7, first change the years setting ➏ to show just one year of data (e.g., 2007). Next, click the “Forms” button ➐ to call up the NTD forms for that year for each agency in the initial peer group, as illustrated in Figure A8. Use the tabs ➊ at the top of the screen (Figure A8) to switch between forms. The navigation buttons ➋ ➌ will scroll along with the form. The “Next” and “Last” buttons ➋ let one move between agency forms. More than one copy of certain forms may exist for a given year and provider (for example, forms de- scribing providers of contracting service and the fleet composi- tion) and forms will be provided for multiple years if more than one year was selected in the “Select Groups” window). Use the “Close” button ➌ to return to the “Select Groups” window. The following lists the available forms and common screen- ing factors available on those forms. Note that data on certain forms are not released by the FTA. • B-10, Transit Agency Identification: Organization type, institutional structure, vehicles operated in maximum ser- vice, service area size and population (often not reported consistently between agencies). • B-30, Contractual Relationship: (One form per contrac- tor.) Type of relationship with the reporting agency, con- tracted vehicles operated in maximum service, contract costs and revenues, demand-response provider type. • F-10, Sources of Funds—Funds Expended and Funds Earned: Modes operated, revenues by source, funds expended on operations and capital. • F-20, Use of Capital: Capital funds expended by mode, type of capital expense, and purpose (existing service vs. expansion of service). • F-30, Operating Expense: (One form per mode and service type.) Operating funds expended by function (operations, vehicle maintenance, non-vehicle maintenance, and general administration) and expense class. • F-40, Operating Expense: Similar to F-30, but reporting agency totals. • F-50, Operators’ Wages: Platform time, straight time, pre- mium time, and non-operating time in dollars and hours. (Only agencies with 150 or more directly operated vehicles in maximum annual service, excluding demand-response and vanpool vehicles, are required to report this information, 1 2 3 Figure A8. Sample forms window. 79

80 and FTA stopped releasing these data beginning with the 2008 reporting year.) • A-10, Stations and Maintenance Facilities: Number of stations by ADA accessibility (yes/no), number of mainte- nance facilities by size and type (owned vs. leased). • A-20, Transit Way Mileage: Rail miles of track and number of grade crossings by right-of-way type, non-rail miles of exclusive right-of-way. • A-30, Revenue Vehicle Inventory: (One form per fleet.) Number of vehicles in fleet, fleet age, average mileage, stand- ing capacity, ADA features. • S-10, Transit Agency Service: (One form per mode and service type) Vehicles operated and available for maximum service; service start/end times, vehicle miles and hours, revenue miles and hours, and ridership by average weekday/ Saturday/Sunday; number of vehicles operated A.M. peak/ midday/P.M. peak/other. • R-10, Employees: (One form per mode and service type) Full- and part-time employees by function. • R-20, Maintenance Performance: (One form per mode and service type) Number of major and other mechanical failures, labor hours for maintenance and inspection. • R-30, Energy Consumption: (One form per mode and ser- vice type) Amount of energy consumed by fuel/power type. Other forms shown in the window either summarize data from other forms or are used for information (e.g., safety and security information) that is not released by the FTA (therefore, the forms appear blank in FTIS). For example, someone wanting to screen for peers that use a dedicated local sales tax as a funding source could go to form F-10, Sources of Funds: Funds Expended and Funds Earned. Scrolling down the window shown in Figure A9, one would discover that the agency used for this example does receive local sales tax funding. Edit the Peer Group Once a final peer group has been established, go back to the “Select Peers” tab (Figure A4) and re-enter the same informa- tion entered previously. After the “Candidate Peer Group” screen appears (Figure A5), check the boxes ➍ that cor- respond with the final peer group members and click “Save Peer Group” ➎. In the pop-up window (Figure A6), choose to save the checked systems as a peer group ➋ and give the peer group a new name (one not used previously) ➌. Save the peer group and go back to the “Groups” window (Figure A7) as before. Follow the same steps as before to load the new saved peer group from the list of groups and copy the agencies in the group over to the “Selected Systems” window. Step 4a: Identify Performance Measures Specify Analysis Years, Modes, and Service Types Once the final peer group has been loaded, the remaining options in the “Select Groups” window filter the data that will be retrieved during the next step. 2 3 Figure A9. Dedicated tax information on NTD form F-10.

Select the years to be used for the analysis, using the pull- down menus (➊ in Figure A10) located above the list of groups. A 5-year period is recommended for a trend analysis, but any combination of consecutive years may be used. • Full-year NTD data may not be available yet for the most recent years shown in the drop-down lists, as it takes the FTA some time to process the data after it is submitted. The INTDAS front page shows the most recent year for which full-year data are available. If the peer group was created using agency-wide data, select “[All Individual Modes]” from the “Select Individual Modes” box ➋. Otherwise, select the specific mode used to create the peer group. The area in the upper-right ➌ portion of the window spec- ifies the service types to use in the analysis. The NTD distin- guishes between service directly operated (DO) by an agency and service purchased from another provider (PT). For certain common performance measures and ratios—called “Florida Standard Variables” by FTIS—the software offers a third option, DP, which provides agency totals combining directly operated and purchased service. • Most performance-measurement applications use perfor- mance measures based on ratios (e.g., passengers per revenue hour, cost per passenger, etc.). The NTD only collects and reports individual measures (e.g., passengers, revenue hours, operating costs). To make life easier for users, FTIS calcu- lates a variety of common performance ratios as part of the “Florida Standard Variables,” based on the raw NTD data. A list of the Florida Standard Variables is provided at the end of these instructions. • The boxes to check in this section depend on the application, as some analyses may need to distinguish between directly operated and purchased service. If there is no need to dis- tinguish by service type, and all performance measures to be used in the analysis are included in the Florida Standard Variables, then simply check DP. If there is a need to distin- guish by service type, then check the DO and/or PT boxes, depending on the analysis needs. Otherwise, check both the DO and PT boxes; later on, one will need to manually add the DO and PT values in a spreadsheet to create an agency- wide value. The center-right ➍ portion of the window is used to specify how FTIS should aggregate values by type of mode. FTIS will always provide values for each mode specified in box ➋, for each service type specified in area ➌. One can optionally also obtain system-wide totals (ST), totals for all fixed-route modes except demand response (FT), rail-mode totals (RT), and non- rail-mode totals (NT). The abbreviations shown next to the aggregation options indicate which modes are included in the aggregation; the mode codes are the same as those used by the NTD and are also shown in box ➋. • Lists of common abbreviations used by FTIS are provided at the end of these instructions. Click the “Tables >>” button ➎ to proceed to the next screen. 1 2 3 4 5 Figure A10. Process for selecting analysis years, modes, and service types. 81

82 Specify Performance Measures FTIS offers several options for specifying the performance measures to be used in an analysis. These options appear on the screen illustrated in Figure A11. In the upper-left corner ➊, NTD measures can be selected directly by scrolling through a list or by searching for text used in a measure’s name. Measures are sorted by the NTD form they come from and the order in which they are entered on the form. In the center-left section ➋, NTD measures can be selected from NTD forms. Click on a form name and then check the desired variable names from the form(s) they appear in. The list of forms provided in the “Using NTD Forms for Screening” section can serve as a guide for determining where to find a particular measure. In the lower-left section ➌, pre-selected groups of Florida Standard Variables can be selected. Click the “see definitions” link above box ➍ to see which measures are included in each group, or refer to the list at the end of these instructions. Any user-saved groups of measures will also appear in this section. (The process for saving groups of measures is described later.) • The “TCRP Project G-11 Variables” option selects all of the additional variables added to the FTIS database by the TCRP Project G-11. Most of these TCRP Project G-11 vari- ables describe system characteristics and were used in the peer grouping step. They are not intended to be a recom- mended group of measures for comparing performance, but can provide useful descriptive information to help in- terpret the results in a later step. The TCRP Project G-11 variables can also be selected individually using box ➎. • Use the browser’s “Back” button to return to this window after clicking the “see definitions” link, to avoid accidentally closing FTIS. In the upper-right section, the Florida Standard Variables ➍ includes a set of commonly used measures derived from the NTD. Look here for pre-calculated performance ratios. • If a desired performance ratio is not part of the Florida Standard Variables, select the components of the ratio using one of the other boxes and manually calculate the ratio later on in a spreadsheet. • Use of the Florida Standard Variables’ per-capita and per- square-mile ratios is not currently recommended, as this information is not yet reported consistently to the NTD by transit agencies. • Standardized urbanized area population and size values from the Census Bureau can be used to calculate per-capita and per-square-mile ratios; these are available in box ➎. The center-right section ➎ contains non-NTD measures added to FTIS by TCRP Project G-11. As mentioned above, most of these measures are used for peer grouping, but “urban area” and “urban area population” are useful for creating per- capita and per-square-mile ratios, and “mean wage rate” can be used later in the analysis to manually adjust cost data, if desired. Select measures by clicking on them (or by checking the box in the form, if the “Forms” box was used). The selected 1 2 3 6 5 4 7 8 Figure A11. Performance measure selection screen.

measures will appear in the box in the lower-right corner of the screen ➏. It is recommended that one save one’s list of variables as a group, to save time the next time one uses FTIS, or in case one is automatically logged out from FTIS due to inactivity. To do so, click the “Save” button ➐ above the “Selected Variables” section of the screen. To continue, click the “Tables” button ➑ in the lower-right corner of the screen. Data Retrieval After Step 4a is completed, a new window (Figure A12) will open that contains a table of performance measure values for each of the selected agencies for each of the selected years. Each row of the table represents data for one year, one agency, one mode (or aggregation of modes), and one service type (or aggregation of service types). For example, row 1 in Figure A12 lists selected data for Intercity Transit’s DO demand-response (DR) service for the year 2003. • Mode and service type abbreviations are the same as those shown on the previous screen. A reference list of these abbreviations is provided at the end of these instructions. The darker blue columns in Figure A12 specify the year, agency name, location, mode, and service type associated with the performance data. The lighter blue columns provide the results for each of the measures selected in the previous window. • Reported values for measures shown with an asterisk (*) in the top row, such as the “Total Funds Expended on Operations (Summary)” measure shown in the example on the previous page, are totals for the agency, even if a specific mode and service type is shown for the row. The NTD only collects system-wide data for those measures; therefore, mode- and service-specific data are not available. Click the “Excel” button ➊ to open a window with the data in Excel format, and then select “Save As” from the “File” menu. Enter a name for the file and select the appropriate file type for the spreadsheet that will be used to analyze the data. • Other buttons at the top of the page are used for creating cross-tables, simple charts, summations, regressions, and summary statistics. It is also possible to adjust cost data for inflation and sort the data in different ways. Most of these buttons are self-explanatory and duplicate functions available in a spreadsheet and so are not covered in these instructions. • Another quick-summary option is the “Reports” button in either of the previous two windows. This button opens a new window that can produce quick-summary reports, by mode and service type, for a default set of performance measures for the peer group. Organize Data in the Spreadsheet The ultimate goal of this sub-step is to create a two- dimensional table for each performance measure, with (for 1 Figure A12. Example performance measure results screen. 83

84 example) the agencies as the rows and the years as the columns. Keeping the exported data on one spreadsheet tab, while creating new separate spreadsheet tabs for each performance measure, is a good way to organize the data. Start by sorting the exported data by mode code, agency name, and year. Next, follow the steps below to pick out the rows of interest from the exported data, and then copy the performance measure values from those rows to the corresponding spreadsheet tab. • The following steps assume that values for all service pro- vided by an agency for a given mode are desired; however, a similar process can be followed if a peer-comparison appli- cation needs to distinguish between directly operated and purchased service. If a measure is a Florida Standard Variable, find the data in the exported database as follows: 1. For an agency-wide comparison, copy values in rows with a mode of “ST” and a service of “DP.” 2. For a mode-specific comparison, copy values in rows with the corresponding mode code (e.g., “MB” for motorbus, “LR” for light rail) and a service of “DP.” If a measure is not a Florida Standard Variable, the process is similar, but requires more steps: 1. For an agency-wide comparison, copy values in all rows for a given combination of agency and year. 2. For a mode-specific comparison, copy values in all rows with the corresponding mode code (e.g., “MB” for motor- bus, “LR” for light rail). 3. After completing steps 1 and 2 for all combinations of years and agencies, the measure’s corresponding spread- sheet tab will contain a subset of the database, containing just the values for that measure, plus its identifying data (year, agency, etc.). 4. On a separate part of the tab, enter the agency names as a series of rows and enter the analysis years as a series of columns, as if they were row and column heads for a table. 5. Sum the values in the tab’s database that correspond to each combination of year and agency in the table. • For measures that only report system-wide values, do not sum the values. Instead, copy any of the (exactly the same) system-wide values for the combination of year and agency. • Advanced spreadsheet users can use a spreadsheet’s data- base or pivot table functions to achieve the same result without having to manually select the cells to be summed. Once selection criteria have been developed for one measure, they can be easily adapted for all other measures. If the desired measure is a ratio of two other measures, and is not available as a Florida Standard Variable, follow the above process for the ratio’s two component measures and then create a third spreadsheet tab to hold the summary table for the ratio. Complete this tab’s summary table by dividing the corresponding summary table value for the first perfor- mance measure by the corresponding summary table value for the second performance measure. If desired, normalize cost data (see the Step 4a description in the body of the report) and perform any other desired supple- mental calculations, such as computing a peer-group average for each year for each measure. Step 4b: Analyze Performance Data Checking At this point, it is useful to create graphs for each measure to check for potential data problems such as unusually high or low values for a given agency’s performance measure for a given year or values that bounce up and down with no apparent trend. Examples of this process are described in the body of the report, as part of the Step 4b description. Data Interpretation The process of data interpretation is described in detail in the body of the report as part of the Step 4 description. FTIS can be used as part of the process to call up descriptive data about a particular agency that might explain particular performance. The Step 4b description includes an example of using FTIS data to explain why a particular peer agency appears to perform well in comparison to its peers in a number of areas, but not for one particular measure. Results Presentation The production of graphs and tables for presentation pur- poses will probably be done outside of FTIS. However, FTIS’ graphing and reporting features are valuable for quickly generating summary results for internal use. Results presen- tation is covered in more detail in the body of the report as part of the Step 4c description. List of Common FTIS Abbreviations Table A1 provides a list of common abbreviations that appear on FTIS screens and forms. List of Florida Standard Variables This list (Table A2) is current as of early 2010; consult the FTIS online list for the most up-to-date information and to identify the specific NTD measures used to calculate perfor- mance ratios.

Modes Service Types Data Aggregations AG automated guideway MB motorbus DO directly operated ST systemwide total CC cable car MO monorail PT purchased transportation FT fixed-route total (except DR) CR commuter rail OR other DP both DO & PT RT rail total DR demand response PB publico NT non-rail total FB ferryboat TB trolleybus HR heavy/rapid rail TR aerial tramway IP inclined plane VP vanpool JT jitney AR Alaska Railroad LR light rail Table A1. Common FTIS abbreviations. General Performance Indicators Effectiveness Measures Efficiency Measures SERVICE AREA DESCRIPTORS SERVICE SUPPLY COST EFFICIENCY Service area population Vehicle miles per capita Operating expense per capita Service area size Operating expense per peak vehicle SERVICE CONSUMPTION Op. expense per passenger trip USAGE Passenger trips per capita Op. expense per passenger mile Passenger trips Passenger trips per revenue mile Operating expense per revenue mile Passenger miles Passenger trips per revenue hour Operating expense per revenue hour Average trip length Maintenance exp. per revenue mile SERVICE Maintenance exp. per operating exp. Vehicle miles QUALITY OF SERVICE Revenue miles Average speed OPERATING RATIOS Vehicle hours Average headway Farebox recovery Revenue hours Average age of fleet Local revenue per operating expense Route miles Number of incidents Operating revenue per op. expense N umber of vehicle system failures EXPENSES Revenue miles between failures VEHICLE UTILIZATION Total operating expense Vehicle miles per peak vehicle Total maintenance expense AVAILABILITY Vehicle hours per peak vehicle Total capital expense Revenue miles per route miles Revenue miles per vehicle mile W eekday span of service Revenue miles per vehicle REVENUE Route miles per square mile Revenue hours per vehicle Federal revenue State revenue LABOR PRODUCTIVITY Local revenue Revenue hours per employee Passenger trips per employee EMPLOYEES Total employees ENERGY UTILIZATION Transportation operating employees Vehicle miles per gallon Administrative employees Vehicle miles per kilowatt-hour VEHICLES FARE Vehicles available for max. service Average fare Vehicles operated in max. service Spare ratio ENERGY CONSUMPTION Total gallons consumed Total energy consumed Table A2. Florida Standard Variables. 85

Next: Appendix B - Peer-Grouping Methodology Details »
A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 141: A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry explores the use of performance measurement and benchmarking as tools to help identify the strengths and weaknesses of a transit organization, set goals or performance targets, and identify best practices to improve performance.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!