State DOT Public Transportation Performance Measures: State of the Practice and Future Needs (2011) / Chapter Skim
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Of the state DOTs that are using public transportation performance measures, many STATE DOT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION PERFORMANCE MEASURES: STATE OF THE PRACTICE AND FUTURE NEEDS The research reported herein was performed under NCHRP Project 20-65 (Task 29) by ICF International, Washington, DC.
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Use of performance measures by State DOT public transportation divisions is driven by the business functions these divisions perform, including compliance with data reporting requirements and supporting statewide public transportation planning decisions and funding allocation. Within the survey, 17 state DOTs indicated they are using public transportation performance measures to support allocation of or formulas for public transportation operating funding, and 11 indicated they are using performance measures to support allocation of or formulas for capital funding.
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Many state DOTs pointed to a need to find ways to compare disparate public transportation systems and to collect accurate and relevant data from their public transportation providers. Moreover, developing appropriate performance measures is often challenging, given the disparate nature of different types of public transportation services, particularly in rural areas.
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NMDOT uses performance measures addressing the services it operates, as well as measures to support distribution of Section 5311 funds through a funding distribution index. • Virginia: The Virginia Performs website documents state public transportation goals and performance measures, allowing users to examine plans, goals, performance reports, and budget documents.
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Most DOTs are responsible for rural public transportation systems in their state, including funding distribution, data collection assistance, technical assistance, or other regulation, while large urbanized areas may have their own public transportation authorities that receive direct federal funding and report directly to the federal government. As a result, state DOTs often oversee FTA Transit Funding Programs Federal funding is often the primary source of transit funding for many states and operators.
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However, they generally focus on measures at the transit agency level, rather than at the state DOT level, and these measures may not be appropriate for state-level tracking of performance toward meeting statewide goals or for supporting funding allocation decisions. CHAPTER 3 CURRENT STATE OF THE PRACTICE State DOT Use of Public Transportation Performance Measures Over the last 10 years, many state DOTs have established performance measurement programs that touch many aspects of their business.
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Several other state DOTs, including Washington State, Florida and Minnesota, are required by their state legislatures to provide reports on public transportation performance. In addition, FTA requires all state DOTs to provide annual data reports on the extent of rural public transportation service in their states.
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Moreover, rural public transportation services, which are a focus of many state DOTs' programs, may require different types of measures than urban systems. Although there are various ways to classify performance measures, the following list contains a few common measure categories, along with examples of specific measures being used by state DOTs.
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How Public Transportation Divisions Use Performance Measures Use of performance measures by public transportation divisions is driven by the business functions these groups perform. In many cases, statewide oversight for rural public transportation service is the primary motivator for state DOT use of public transportation performance measures.
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Figure 3 Number of state DOTs reporting different types of public transportation performance measures in use. Performance Measure Examples of State DOTs Using Ridership Measures Ridership AR, CO, CT, DC, FL, IA, KY, MO, MS, MT, NJ, NM, OK, PA, SD, TN, VA IW,XTatipacrepsregnessaP CDpihsredirfotnecrepetuoR Ratio of ridership growth to population growth FL Number of special transit rides per each elderly and disabled person OR TVyadrepsgnidraoB VWpihsredirlarurniesaercnitnecreP Availability Measures Ratio of revenue hours to service area population OR, WI OCsruohecivreS Average days per week with rural transit service available MO OMspotssubyticretniforebmuN Percent of population with daily intercity transit service OR Internal Cost and Efficiency Measures IW,AW,TV,AP,JN,SM,OCruohecivresreptsoC VW,AW,TV,AV,SM,LFoitaryrevocerxoberaF TV,XT,SM,CD,OCelimeuneverrepsrediR ,IW,AV,DS,SM,LFpirtreptsoC Passengers per hour -- applied to different system peer groups MN, MS, VA, VT, WA TV,AP,CD,OCredirreptsoC TV,JN,SM,OCelimreptsoC OC,RAsesnepxelatoT Figure 4 Sample of public transportation performance measures in use by state DOTs.
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The NTD's rural public transportation data reporting requirements went into effect in 2006. They require the state DOT to report annually on their grantees' total annual revenue, sources of revenue, operating costs, capital costs, fleet make-up, revenue vehicle miles, and ridership.
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As the logical focal point for addressing statewide rural public transportation planning, a DOT's public transportation division is uniquely positioned to use performance measures to inform short- and long-range planning decisions, drawing on information related to geographic distribution of public transportation service, service cost efficiency, quantity of service, quality of service, ridership growth, and condition of assets. Within the survey, 12 state DOTs indicated that they are using public transportation performance measures to support decisions on infrastructure investments.
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In many states, local-level decision-making by individual public transportation providers is favored over coordinated statewide planning. As a result, some state DOT public transportation divisions see limited value in using performance measures because they do not play a strong role in influencing results.
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Measures addressing issues like service quality, on-time performance, customer satisfaction, or environmental benefits, which often tie to statewide goals, are less commonly used, in part due to limited data or methods to analyze these performance metrics. According to the survey, over half the states without public transportation performance measures indicated that data availability and lack of technical resources were challenges that have prevented the agency from using performance measures.
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The available data will vary from urban to rural systems and unless measures are targeted to urban and rural systems separately, then performance measures must rely on data available from all public transportation providers. Sources Consulted In developing performance measures, state DOTs rely on various resources.
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State DOTs also look at how their state's public transportation providers are measuring their own performance, separately from the state's requirements. Oregon DOT, for example, looks to the state's largest public transportation provider, Tri-Met in the Portland region, for ideas on future public transportation performance measures such as a public transportation level of service measure.
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Public Transportation Provider Performance Measurement While most state public transportation performance measurement occurs at the aggregate, statewide level, several states also encourage or require their individual public transportation providers to monitor their own performance. These measures do not have to be linked to the state's performance measures, but instead seek to instill a similar performancebased approach to funding and service provision at the local level.
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Mn/DOT has been tracking how many public transportation providers are adopting such service standards and after finding that public transportation providers were not adopting service standards, Mn/DOT started to make standard setting look more like a state requirement. Monitoring Systems State DOTs may also develop systems that support both local and state level performance monitoring.
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Inclusion of Public Transportation Measures in Agency-Wide Performance Reports The most common way that state DOTs provide accountability for public transportation performance is through use of performance measures in broader DOT reports. These are intended chiefly for external audiences and use a handful of high-level measures.
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Performance measures included in the Transit Summary include the following: • Fares/Operating Cost; • Operating Cost/Passenger Trip; • Operating Cost/Revenue Vehicle Mile; • Operating Cost/Revenue Vehicle Hour; • Operating Cost/Total Vehicle Hour; • Revenue Vehicle Hours/Total Vehicle Hour; • Revenue Vehicle Hours/FTE; • Revenue Vehicle Miles/Revenue Vehicle Hour; • Passenger Trips/Revenue Vehicle Hour; and • Passenger Trips/Revenue Vehicle Mile. The Transit Summary is devoted to 5- to 10-page profiles of the state's 28 public transportation providers' operating characteristics, services, and achievements.
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Supporting State Funding Requests State DOTs can also use the information collected through their performance measures to help make the case to their state legislatures for increased public transportation funding. Virginia DRPT's asset management inventory system and public transportation development plan requirement helps both public transportation providers and the department to manage better.
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are informally used in FDOT funding decisions, along with qualitative assessments, such as the community support, the public transportation agency's past performance, a project's overall viability, and its potential ability to compete with national projects. As with several states, FDOT also uses performance measures in a state block grant formula, which takes ridership, revenue miles of service, and the ratio of the public transportation ridership growth rate to the population growth rate into account.
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KDOT produces an annual report measuring performance, although it does not include public transportation performance measures. KDOT and the state's rural public transportation providers work together to collect data elements required as a condition of receiving federal funding and report it in the FTA's NTD.
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For public transportation in Greater Minnesota, these are the following: • Bus service hours: "total number of public transit bus services hours provided compared to the total number of hours needed to meet transit demand"; • Public transportation coverage: "number of counties in Greater Minnesota with countywide transit service"; • Access to intercity bus service: "percent of [defined] Regional Trade Centers with scheduled intercity bus service"; and • Remaining service life for public transportation fleets: "percent of Greater Minnesota transit fleet with a remaining life within the minimum normal service life." The Office of Transit also tracks several related performance indicators that are used for funding distribution and monitoring public transportation service providers.
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New Mexico Department of Transportation State Overview NMDOT's performance measurement system is an example of the state of the practice, with an internal funding index that takes some performance measures into account. NMDOT administers funds for 23 rural public transportation providers and three small urban public transportation providers.
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DRPT has also strengthened the links between its performance measures and its funding allocations by implementing an asset management inventory system, which the public transportation providers help to keep current through reporting. Public transportation agency reports on their performance measures allow the state to forecast its inventory needs and help the state to see where investment is needed.
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WSDOT also conducts commuter surveys that monitor mode share and vehicle miles traveled. The information contained in the Transit Summary is primarily used by local public transportation agencies and at present, is not used as part of budgeting, grant selection, or other decisionmaking processes.
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Many state DOTs pointed to a need to find ways to compare disparate public transportation systems and to collect accurate and relevant data from their public transportation providers. Moreover, developing appropriate performance measures is often challenging, given the disparate nature of different types of public transportation services, particularly in rural areas.
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ACRONYMS A/O Administration/Operations AASHTO American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials CTD Coordinated Transit District CUTR Center for Urban Transportation Research DOT Department of Transportation DRPT Department of Rail and Public Transportation FDOT Florida Department of Transportation FTA Federal Transit Administration FTC Florida Transportation Commission FTIS Florida Transit Information System GAO Government Accountability Office GIS Geographic Information System GPS Global Positioning System KDOT Kansas Department of Transportation Mn/DOT Minnesota Department of Transportation MoDOT Missouri Department of Transportation NCHRP National Cooperative Highway Research Program NMDOT New Mexico Department of Transportation NTD National Transit Database ODOT Oregon Department of Transportation TCRP Transit Cooperative Research Program TDP Transit Development Plan WSDOT Washington State Department of Transportation
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AK GA MI NM UT AL HI MN NV VA AR IA MO NY VT AZ ID MS OK WA CA IN MT OR WI CO KS NC PA WV CT KY ND SD WY DC LA NE TN FL ME NJ TX Total: 43 What is your division or department within your agency? Answer Options Response Percent Response Count Planning 27.9% 12 Public Transportation/Transit 60.5% 26 Operations 0.0% 0 Other (please specify)
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Answer Options Response Percent Response Count 1 3.4% 1 2 to 3 34.5% 10 4 to 6 37.9% 11 7 or more 24.1% 7 answered question 29 What types of transit performance measures are being used? (Please select all that apply.)
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Total Passengers, Total Operating Revenue and Total Operating Expenses per Revenue Vehicle Hour and 4. Total Operating Expense per Passenger.
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To increase transit ridership by using NTD Data by 5% over two years INDOT is responsible for allocating state funds to our public transit systems. The 3 performance measures are Passenger Trips per Operating Expense, Miles per Operating Expense, and Locally Derived Income per Operating Expense -Annual number of riders on park and ride -Annual number of riders on the Rail Runner corridor, in millions Ridership, operating costs, and maintenance costs.
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-- the monthly operating expense divided by the number of one-way passenger trips. Operating Cost per Vehicle Mile -- the monthly operating expense divided by the total distance traveled by all system vehicles.
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(Please select all that apply.) Answer Options Response Percent Response Count To measure progress toward statewide goals 53.6% 15 To measure progress toward agency targets or to 53.6% 15 compare agency services To support decisions on infrastructure investments 42.9% 12 To support specific allocation of or formulas for 39.3% 11 transit capital funds To support specific allocation of or formulas for 60.7% 17 transit operating funding To fulfill statutory requirements 39.3% 11 To provide public accountability 50.0% 14 Other (please specify)
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, total revenue vehicle hours and total revenue miles of service. Also the Department conducts an on-site performance review of each urban and rural transit system (fixed route service only)
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Answer Options Response Percent Response Count Part of a long-range transportation planning process 27.6% 8 Part of another state planning process 27.6% 8 In concert with transit agency(ies) 41.4% 12 By the state legislature (such as through a statute 17.2% 5 or appropriations bill)
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Answer Options Response Percent Response Count Yes 57.1% 8 No 21.4% 3 Currently developing performance measures 21.4% 3 answered question 14
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(Please select all that apply.) Answer Options Response Percent Response Count None 0.0% 0 Data availability 61.5% 8 Staff shortage 69.2% 9 Lack of funding 38.5% 5 Analytic tools and skill sets 46.2% 6 Lack of technical resources 53.8% 7 Other (please provide a short description)
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No transit goals or performance measures. 16.7% 7 State DOT planning staff 40.5% 17 State DOT public transportation division staff 64.3% 27 Transit agency(ies)
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14.3% 6 State DOT planning staff 28.6% 12 State DOT public transportation division staff 64.3% 27 Transit agency(ies) 26.2% 11 Metropolitan planning organizations 16.7% 7 DOT senior management 26.2% 11 Public/area stakeholder groups 14.3% 6 State legislature 23.8% 10 Other (please specify)
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This is an evolving process. Oregon transit has benefitted from the discussion of the high level performance measures in the political setting.
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• Does the state legislature have any statutes in place that impact your interaction with public transportation agencies? Performance Measure Setting • What process did you use to create your performance measures?
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Subscriber Category: Public Transportation ISBN 978-0-309-21349-3 9 780309 213493 9 0 0 0 0
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