UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Customer-Focused Performance Measures (Looking for a few good measures) by Philip J. Tarnoff For the ITS America Annual Meeting Phoenix, AZ 2005

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Scope of Presentation Performance Measurement – A very brief overview Ongoing activities (looking for a few good measures) Mid-year ITE Meeting Round Table Candidate measures

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Definition “The use of statistical evidence to determine progress toward specific defined organizational objectives. This includes both evidence of actual fact, such as the measurement of pavement surface smoothness, and measurement of customer perception such as would be accomplished through a customer satisfaction survey.” Source: “Performance-Based Planning manual (Preliminary Draft)”, NCHRP Project 8-32, 2005

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Implications of the Definition Of little value unless organizational objectives have been defined Results achieved by others might be used to establish agency objectives (benchmarking) Recognizes that not all measures can be quantified Implicit distinction between internal and external uses May not reflect the needs of operations (i.e. real- time information to support decision making of both operators and the public)

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Ongoing Activity Initiated by AASHTO Performance Measures Task Force Supported by the National Transportation Operations Coalition Project being conducted jointly by the: –International City/County Management Association (ICMA), Center for Performance Measurement –University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology One year project scheduled for completion spring 2005

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY The Project Goal – A common set of performance measures for evaluating the management and operations activities of participating public agencies. Define a candidate list of (about 10) performance measures for further study Address –Non-recurring congestion –Recurring congestion –System-wide performance Agree on definitions for selected measures

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Contract Activities Literature review Meet with Steering Committee to develop short-list of measures Distribute questionnaire Refine shortlist and define measures (mid-year ITE meeting Prepare final set of definitions and final report.

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Literature Review Objective to define state-of-the-art of performance measurement Reviewed more than 50 relevant references Identified more than 150 different measures Many measures are variations of other, similar measures Defined a set of high level measures for initial consideration

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY The Initial Short List of 14 High Level Measures Customer Satisfaction Extent of Congestion Recurring Delay Incident Delay Emissions Incident Characteristics Intersection Level of Service Reliability Safety Speed Throughput per Person Throughput per Vehicle Travel Time – Link Travel Time – Origin/Destination

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Mid-Year ITE Meeting – Round Table Discussion National performance measure “consistency” only needed to: –Justify funding/resource requests –Communicate with our customers –Baseline/benchmarking Other applications for performance measures do not require national consistency including: –Management –Evaluation of operational effectiveness

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Mid-Year Meeting Continued All measures should ultimately support communications with our customers –Accountability –Responsiveness It is not currently possible to efficiently collect all data for the “ideal” measures – Interim measures should be defined Important measures include; –Travel time –Travel time reliability –Emissions –Customer satisfaction with operations

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Final Set of Measures 1.Customer Satisfaction 2.Extent of Congestion 3.Delay – Non-Recurring 4.Delay - Recurring 5.Incident Duration 6.Speed 7.Throughput – Person 8.Throughput – Vehicle 9.Travel Time – Link 10.Travel Time – Reliability 11.Travel Time - Trip

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Issues They’re important, but do we need to standardize real-time measures? Given the industry’s “spotty” track record, is it possible/practical to standardize measures? Given the number of dimensions is it possible to standardize on a few good (10) measures? How do you measure customer satisfaction? Are comparisons among agencies all that undesirable? Does standardization of measures lead to additional costs?