National Academies Press: OpenBook

A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies (2011)

Chapter: Appendix C - Electronic Compendium User Instructions

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Electronic Compendium User Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14598.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Electronic Compendium User Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14598.
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Page 122
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Electronic Compendium User Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14598.
×
Page 123
Page 124
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Electronic Compendium User Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14598.
×
Page 124
Page 125
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Electronic Compendium User Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14598.
×
Page 125
Page 126
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Electronic Compendium User Instructions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14598.
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Page 126

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Electronic Compendium User Instructions C-1 Appendix C Electronic Compendium User Instructions SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE MEASURES COMPENDIUM USER INSTRUCTIONS Welcome to the Excel-based version of the performance measures compendium, developed for NCHRP Project 8-74, “Sustainability Performance Measures for State DOTs and Other Transportation Agencies.” These instructions provide you with the ability to generate and export a custom list of sustainability performance measures using a series of filters. This format will also allow you to customize existing measures (by adding measurement units, for example). You will find the Excel file on the CD-ROM that accompanies this guidebook. THE BASICS 1. Opening the document – There are two versions of the documents provided. The “MAIN” version is for use with Microsoft Excel 2007 or later. The “97-2003” version can be used with earlier versions, but some original formatting types may not be supported. To ensure that the integrity of the original file remains intact, please immediately “Save As” and re-title the workbook. The workbook will typically run faster from your local drive than on a network, CD, or external drive. 2. Enable macros – Enable macros by clicking on the Security Warning “Options” box above the formula bar and selecting “Enable this content” (Figure C-1). If upon opening the worksheet, the Options box is not displayed, you may need to modify your macros security protocols, found in the Trust Center Settings (Office Button > Word Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Disable all macros with notification). Please confer with your IT administrator before making changes. Figure C-1. Macro security alert dialog box.

C-2 A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies 3. Worksheet protection – To prevent users from accidentally deleting data or modifying functionality, each worksheet (the tabs displayed at the bottom of the workbook) is protected, with basic permissions granted based on anticipated user needs. Each worksheet can be unprotected by right clicking on the applicable tab and selecting “unprotect worksheet.” Depending on user needs, unprotected worksheets may require manual re-protection. (Right click on the tab and select “Protect Worksheet.” No password is required for unprotecting and re-protecting sheets. Respond to the dialog box for re-protecting sheets by clicking “OK”). Note: Please do not apply workbook protection via the “Review” tab. Doing so will disable the Export macro and yield a run- time error message. USING THE COMPENDIUM 1. Workbook components – The compendium is composed of one worksheet (Figure C-2) for each of the 11 goals and one “All Measures” worksheet, in which all goals, objectives, and measures are assembled and cross-categorized to enable more precise filtering operations. Further information on the compendium, including the development of the goals, focus areas, objectives, and measures, may be found in Appendix B of the guidebook. Figure C-2. Screenshot of a compendium worksheet.

Electronic Compendium User Instructions C-3 2. Filtering – Filtering, which allows for the generation of a customized list of goals, objectives, and measures, is enabled through the “All Measures” worksheet. A filtering operation is initiated by clicking on the box (with embedded downward arrow—see arrow in Figure C-3) provided in row three (3), directly beneath the title of the filter (e.g., “Safety.”). A drop-down box menu will appear, with a scroll menu at the bottom (beneath “Text Filters”). The filter is applied by selecting only checkboxes with relevant categories and clicking “OK.” For example, to filter out all goals except 1 and 2, check boxes 1 and 2, ensuring that all others remain blank. Apply as many filters as necessary in order to ensure that the list is sufficiently precise and manageable. Note: Using the “Sort” function is not recommended. Although sorting is disabled by the default worksheet protections, selecting “Sort” will harm the “Reset” macro. Figure C-3. Filter in the compendium using the checkboxes. The filters include 1) Goals, Objectives, Measures (columns A–C): As text-based lists offering a multitude of choices (from 11 under Goal to over 400 under Measures), these filters are not recommended for initial filter operations but may be useful for final refinements. The use of italics in the “Measures” column indicates that a given measure is a designated “example of use” measure, described in Appendix D. These columns are linked directly from the Goal tabs and should never be modified on the “All Measures” tab. See Figure C-4. 2) ID: Goal, Objective, Measure (columns D–F): The columns combine to provide a discrete ID number for each measure and may be used to easily trace each measure back to its source goal worksheet. The “Goal” filter (column D) is useful for eliminating unwanted

C-4 A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies goals and is well suited for initial filtering operations. “Object” and “Measure” are provided primarily to provide complete IDs but may also be used for final filtering. 3) Focus Areas (column G): This filter allows the user to select from among the six focus areas to provide appropriate emphasis. The abbreviations are defined in the “Key” tab. 4) Type (columns H and I): a. Organizational Applicability (column H): Allows the user to view measures only applicable to internal aspects of the agency (pertaining to the agency’s own vehicle fleet, for example), or conversely, only focused on external activities. b. Outcome (OC)/Output (OP)/Process (P) (column I): Allows the user to filter measures that reflect outcomes (results of activities), outputs (activities themselves), or agency processes (reflects the existence of a process or procedures). Full definitions are included in the “Key” tab. 5) Program Relevance (columns J–N): Allows the user to filter measures by broad program areas or interests, including a. Freight, b. Transit, c. Bike/pedestrian, d. Safety, and e. Land use. 6) Principles (columns O–R): Allows the user to filter by principle, including the three Es (environment, equity, economy) and fostering community health and vitality. Figure C-4. Screenshot of columns that can be filtered. 3. Duplicate measures – Some measures may appear under multiple goals and/or objectives. Measures within different goal categories that are effectively duplicates are cross-listed in the “Duplicate” columns by ID number (Goal-Objective-Measure).

Electronic Compendium User Instructions C-5 Exporting – Once you have applied all relevant filters to produce a customized list of goals, objectives, and measures, it may be exported. The exporting operation is accomplished by clicking the “EXPORT” radio button at top left (in cell A-2). If you export the entire, unfiltered worksheet, a pop-up message will occur asking “No filters selected, do you want to export the entire sheet?” Clicking “Yes” will initiate the export operation (Figure C-5). Clicking “No” will ask you to “Please select filters and then export.” Figure C-5. Export dialog box. If you export a filtered worksheet, the “Export” macro may take several seconds, depending on the processing speed of your computer. The macro begins by copying all visible (filtered) cells into a new worksheet, entitled “Sheet 1” (or 2, 3, etc., if multiple exports are performed). The macro then returns the user to the “All Measures” workbook, where subsequent filtering can occur. (The “All Measures” sheet is automatically reset). This operation can be performed manually but is moderately complicated and time consuming. Returning to the exported sheet, you will find the date of export stamped in cell A-1. (The “All Measures” sheet has a dynamic date.) By default, the cursor will be located in cell C-1 (“Title”), reminding you of the option to title your customized list. (You may also re- title the tab itself by double clicking on it.) Note: To limit the file size of the compendium and prevent noticeable slowdowns, it is recommended that users either delete exported sheets after use or move them to a new workbook (right click on tab > move or copy > to book: (new book) > save). Figure C-6. Pop-up box alert. 5. 4. Reset – The user can simultaneously remove all filters on the “All Measures” sheet by clicking the “RESET” radio button, located in cell A-2. If you have not applied any filters, a pop-up box will alert you by stating “No filters selected” (Figure C-6). The reset

C-6 A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies operation is also easily performed manually by clicking “Clear” filter, under the Data menu. Individual filters may be removed by clicking the arrow-embedded filter box and selecting “Clear filter from column ___” or modified by changing the selected check boxes. 6. Goals – The 11 goal worksheets feed content directly to the “All Measures” tab but are not intended for direct filtering (a default protection). They are organized by focus areas (which contain relevant objectives and measures), with each row displaying “Goal- Objective” IDs in column A, an objective in column B, and measures applicable to that objective lettered from A to E (providing the measure ID). The sheets may be modified by the user, either to customize existing measures or to add new measures. To create new measures, it is recommended that the user supplant an existing measure, which will be automatically reflected in the “All Measures” tab (although changes in filter criteria need to be updated manually). The creation of new measures in blank cells is not recommended since the “All Measures” sheet would require manual modification. Each “Goal” tab is set up for easy landscape-format printing, with page breaks coincident with focus areas.

Next: Appendix D - Sustainability Performance Measure Examples »
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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 708: A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies describes the underlying principles of sustainability as it relates to transportation, possible goals that can be used to address those principles, and performance measures that can be used to address those goals.

Aspects of sustainability-related performance measures, including data sources and examples of use, are discussed. A reference compendium of performance measures has also been provided.

In addition to the guidebook, the contractor’s project Final Report contains the results of the literature review, surveys of the state of the practice, case study interviews, detail on research methodology and findings, and a discussion of future research needs is available on the NCHRP Project 08-74 website.

A CD-ROM, included in the print version of the guidebook, contains an Excel-spreadsheet-based version of the performance measures compendium located in Appendix B of the guidebook. The spreadsheet allows the existing measures to be modified, and macros enable the user to generate and export a custom list of measures. Instructions for using the spreadsheet are found in Appendix C.

The CD-ROM is also available for download from TRB’s website as an ISO image. Links to the ISO image and instructions for burning a CD-ROM from an ISO image are provided below.

Help on Burning an .ISO CD-ROM Image

Download the .ISO CD-ROM Image(Warning: This is a large file and may take some time to download using a high-speed connection.)

An article on NCHRP Report 708 was published in the January-February 2013 issue of the TR News.

CD-ROM Disclaimer - This software is offered as is, without warranty or promise of support of any kind either expressed or implied. Under no circumstance will the National Academy of Sciences or the Transportation Research Board (collectively “TRB’) be liable for any loss or damage caused by the installation or operation of this product. TRB makes no representation or warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, in fact or in law, including without limitation, the warranty of merchantability or the warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, and shall not in any case be liable for any consequential or special damages.

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