1. Performance Measurement and Reporting: Washington State’s Experience
Managing for Results
AASHTO Transportation CEO Workshop
October 23, 2009
Paula Hammond, Secretary of Transportation

2. Washington State Department of Transportation Profile
WSDOT owns, manages and maintains:
Highways
20,000 state highway lane miles (carry 86 million vehicle miles / day)
225 lane miles of a planned 320-mile HOV system
More than 3,600 bridges and structures
Ferries
22 ferry vessels, 20 terminals and 500 daily sailings (carry 23 million passengers / year)
Passenger rail
Partner in Amtrak Cascades state passenger rail (carries over 700,000 passengers / year)
Freight rail
Grain Train (runs 89 grain cars)
1,432 miles of short-line rail
Transit support
Commute programs support nearly 800,000
commuters statewide
Vanpool program includes more than 2,650 vans (largest public vanpool fleet in the nation)
Aviation
17 general aviation airports
Total Biennial Budget of nearly $5.8 billion
$4.4 billion (09-11) Capital Budget, over 900 active projects, currently delivering the largest infrastructure program in the state’s history
$1.4 billion (09-11) Operating Budget
(includes Ferries and Highway maintenance)

3. WSDOT is meeting the challenges of:
Additional demand – population and economic growth
Keeping up with preservation and maintenance needs
Making the transportation system safe for travelers
Operating the system well

4. WSDOT’s Vision: The Transportation System of the Future Must Be …
Reliable
Improved travel times for drivers
Better reliability and choices for commuters and increased intercity service
More efficient freight movement across state and in and out of our ports
Responsible
Safer roads, and fewer fatalities and serious injuries
Cost effective asset maintenance and preservation
Highways, transit and ferries provide users integrated travel options
Increased special needs transportation to provide access for jobs and lifeline services
Sustainable
Cleaner air and water
Strategic and balanced approach to climate change
Predictable funding and affordable improvements and operations

5. What Is Performance Measurement and Performance Management?
FHWA: “Use of statistical evidence to determine progress towards specific organizational and system objectives”*
WSDOT’s Working Definition:
An opportunity to tell your story
An opportunity to better manage your agency and operate state transportation systems *

6. Performance Measurement Driving Forces
Federal, gubernatorial, and legislative mandates
Good management practice
Internal agency initiatives
Strategic and business planning
Competition for resources
Investment decision-making
Public and political expectations for accountability
National benchmarking and comparisons (e.g. Urban Mobility Report; Council of State Governments; Governing Magazine)
Performance-based federal aid program/reauthorization
Federal economic stimulus spending and reporting

7. Benefits of Performance Management
Enhancing productivity and service delivery
Identifying and fixing problems and learning from best practices
Understanding issues at a system level
Improving communication internally and externally
Cross-program coordination – removing silos
Demonstrating program effectiveness
Making the case for funding of unmet needs
Allocating resources based on performance
Motivating staff and celebrating accomplishments
Enhancing public support and agency credibility

8. WSDOT’s 2009-15 Strategic Plan:
WSDOT’s Lessons Learned Commit to Transparency and Accountability as a Fundamental Management Principle
WSDOT’s Strategic Plan:
“We will be accountable to the public for all of our challenges and achievements by providing clear and concise information to the people of Washington, elected officials, and our many other transportation partners.”

9. WSDOT’s Lessons Learned Regularly Measure and Communicate Performance
Start with the highest priorities – don’t try to cover everything – build on success over time
Use candor and transparency: “The good, the bad and the ugly”– no exceptions.
Use “Plain Talk” – language people can understand
Combine quantitative and narrative reporting – Performance Journalism – “Telling the Story”
Make reports easily accessible to the public and the media
Quality control the data and analysis
Be current and timely
Train staff
Avoid using measures to penalize

10. WSDOT’s Lessons Learned No Measure is Perfect
Key questions to ask:
Why this measure? What is its purpose? How will it be used?
Will the measure contribute to management and investment decisions, or help communicate performance to decision makers and the public? Or is it “measuring for measuring sake?”
Who is the audience?
Is the measure easily understood?
How much can the agency influence performance?
Is the data accurate, replicable? Can it be used to track trends?
Do the benefits of measuring outweigh the costs of collecting and analyzing data?

11. WSDOT’s Lessons Learned Choose the Right Measures
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Start now, describe measure limitations, and develop more robust measures over time. Measure development is incremental, iterative, and evolutionary
Natural tension between “keep it simple” and the multitude of measures that may be necessary to manage programs and fully “tell the story”
Communicating to broader audiences usually requires higher-level, simpler, and more general measures
More detailed program-level “sub-measures” should logically link to higher level measures in a way that can be clearly explained and understood.
Avoid focusing only on measures just because they’re available (low hanging fruit) if they’re not used to manage – doing so may lead to unintended policy and investment consequences.

12. WSDOT’s Lessons Learned Example: Capital Project Delivery
Sometimes a single, high-level measure can effectively drive performance and communicate results…
High level measure used to drive overall performance and communicate to the Governor, Legislature, and public
Sub-measures used for project management and internal decision making

13. WSDOT’s Lessons Learned Example: Pavement Condition
…and sometimes there is no single high-level measure that can effectively drive performance. Multiple measures are needed to ensure optimal investment decisions. If a single measure is used, its limitations should be clearly acknowledged

14. WSDOT’s Lessons Learned Build Performance Measures Over Time
Examples of WSDOT’s existing performance measurement topics
Topics requiring new performance measures – the work continues
Project delivery
Highway safety
Highway maintenance & operations
Congestion management
Environmental compliance
Asset management (bridges, pavement, ferries, etc.)
Freight rail
Passenger rail
Ferries operations
Workforce safety
ARRA / economic stimulus project reporting
Climate change
Freight mobility
System (state-local) mobility performance
Project effectiveness (“before & after” analysis)

15. Summary of Lessons Learned
Start now - expand and refine over time
Quality control the data and the analysis
Tell the story behind the measures. Use narrative reporting to supplement data
Tailor measures to the audience.
Actively use measures and apply them to policy and management decisions. Using measures leads to better data quality and will support a more effective performance management culture within the agency
Commit to performance measurement, transparency, and accountability as a management principle
Performance measurement can foster improved management, investments, and efficiency. It can’t make up for insufficient funding.