National Academies Press: OpenBook

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

Chapter: Chapter 6 - Resources for Performance Measure Development and Application

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Page 28
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Resources for Performance Measure Development and Application." 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 28
Page 29
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Resources for Performance Measure Development and Application." 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 29
Page 30
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Resources for Performance Measure Development and Application." 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 30
Page 31
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Resources for Performance Measure Development and Application." 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 31

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28 A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies Chapter 6 Resources for Performance Measure Development and Application COMPENDIUM OF OBJECTIVES AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES Appendix B contains a performance measures compendium, an electronic version of which is included on the CD-ROM accompanying this guidebook. For step-by-step instructions on how to use this electronic compendium, refer to the user instructions in Appendix C. The compendium provides a useful resource to help identify objectives and performance measures. It is designed to support you in identifying the right objectives and measures for your performance measurement system, consistent with the goals set by your agency to promote sustainability. As shown in Figure 4, the electronic compendium is organized by each of the 11 goals, broken out by focus areas, objectives, and measures. The spreadsheet-based format allows for filtering of measures in order to sort and organize them, as shown in Figure 5. The compendium also offers an extensive list of objectives for each focus area that you can review as you define objectives to achieve each goal, and offers as well measures that could be used to assess each objective. Alternatively, the examples of measures provided in the compendium provide ideas that you can draw on as you craft your own objectives and measures. The electronic compendium offers an extensive list of objectives and performance measures for each focus area that can be used to achieve each recommended goal.

Resources for Performance Measure Development and Application 29 1. Goals that state the overall purpose of your program, keeping in mind the sustainability principles. 2. You can export customized worksheets from the compendium. 3. Specific objectives describe what will be done to achieve each goal. 4. Quantifiable measures assess progress in meeting objectives. Some measures may apply to multiple objectives. 5. Each measure has a unique ID. 6. Measures in italics are those described further as example measures in Appendix D. Figure 4. The compendium of objectives and measures.

30 A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies 1. Filtering by focus area helps identify appropriate objectives and measures. 2. Filtering by measure type helps you understand the role of the selected measure: a. Organizational Applicability: Is the measure implemented within the agency (Y) or specific to the agency’s transportation function (N)? b. Outcome/Output/Process: Does the measure express the outcome of an action, the output or product of an action, or illustrate the process leading to action? 3. Filtering by program relevance provides the option to focus on one or more of five key program areas that may be of interest. 4. Filtering by principles helps you identify measures that provide information related to one or more of the four sustainability principles. 5. The duplicate function identifies similar or duplicate measures associated with other goals (by measure ID number). Figure 5. Filter functions in the compendium help the user sort and organize measures.

Resources for Performance Measure Development and Application 31 EXAMPLES OF USE AND DATA SOURCES In addition to the example objectives and performance measures contained in the compendium, Appendix D of this guide provides a set of examples in practice for a selected set of performance measures from the compendium. For each goal, one measure per focus area has been illustrated by an example of a similar measure in use by a transportation agency. (The measures selected for use as examples are denoted in the compendium through the use of italicized text.) Many of the measures are not exact duplicates of those contained in the compendium but retain the same value or intention. In some cases the way the example measure is used by an agency differs slightly from the measure it is being matched to illustrate. These were included either because they were the closest real-world examples found or they are an interesting example of how a measure could be used. Appendix E lists some generic resources for data that may be used to support many of the performance measures included in the compendium. Only data sources that may be relevant for a large number of agencies have been included. WORKSHOP MATERIALS TO FACILITATE PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT DEVELOPMENT This guidebook provides transportation agencies with the tools required to understand and apply sustainability through performance measurement. As a part of the research project, the research team presented interactive practitioner workshops that aimed to present an overview of the project findings and to test the application of the SPM framework in practice. The CD-ROM accompanying the guidebook contains a modified version of the presentation and workshop materials, which can be adapted for use in your agency to provide an overview of the guidebook and allow you to work through the process of understanding sustainability in the transportation context and develop goals and performance measures to suit your agency’s needs. Appendix G provides a further description of the presentation materials and a generic structure for the workshop.

Next: Chapter 7 - Sustainability Measures Checklist »
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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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