Performance Results: An MPO's Experience Developing a Pragmatic Methodology for Project-Level Performance Assessment

Increasingly, with serious budget constraints and seemingly multitudinous transportation needs, transportation planning agencies are called upon to measurably demonstrate prudent and cost-effective use of public resources. A study conducted by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority has approached this challenge in a comprehensive fashion, developing practical methods for systematically evaluating impacts of implemented projects and programs. The effort drew from approaches in the literature, adapted techniques to the wide range of improvements overseen at a large metropolitan planning organization, and importantly, paid close attention to the effects of transportation on a region’s economic, environmental, and social well-being. Finding no organized methodology of this scope, the study investigated the relevance and viability of sets of performance measures and constructed a guidebook of methods geared toward various project types. Based on trials with example projects, the study found challenges of data availability, quantitative accuracy, and the ability to decisively attribute project impacts amidst otherwise changing conditions. Its findings, along with potential approaches to navigating the challenges, present valuable lessons for the development of future transportation projects and policies.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABC30 Performance Measurement
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Fineman, Brian J
  • ten Siethoff, Brian
  • Gock, Anson
  • Vernick, Jeffrey F
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2012-1-22 to 2012-1-26
• Date: 2012

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17
• Monograph Title: TRB 91st Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Guidelines; Metropolitan planning organizations; Performance measurement; Project management
• Geographic Terms: Northern New Jersey
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General); I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01363793
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 12-0481
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Feb 24 2012 2:28PM