Transportation Performance Management

The United States’ Department of Transportation recognizes that it is important to continuously monitor the performance of the nation’s transportation improvements and programs to determine if the nation is achieving its national goals and objectives related to transportation. Under current federal surface transportation legislation, states and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) will "transition to a performance-driven, outcome based program..." 

Performance based-planning and programming's implementation is done within the Transportation Performance Management (TPM) framework, which provides key system information to determine the progress towards achieving these goals and objectives and prioritizes investment and policy decisions. TPM also gives transportation agencies a better ability to identify and mitigate issues with their respective transportation networks and improve communication between partner agencies through data and objective information.

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21)

On July 6, 2012, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) was signed into law, creating a streamlined, performance-based, multimodal program in an effort to address challenges facing the U.S. transportation system. In relation to performance management, MAP-21 aims to increase the accountability and transparency of Federal highway programs by improving transportation investment decision-making through performance-based planning and programming.

As a result of MAP-21, 7 national goals were established to address safety, current infrastructure, traffic congestion, efficiency, environment, transportation delays, and project delivery delays;

1. Safety - To achieve a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads.
2. Infrastructure Condition - To maintain the highway infrastructure asset system in a state of good repair.
3. Congestion Reduction - To achieve a significant reduction in congestion on the National Highway System (NHS).
4. System Reliability - To improve the efficiency of the surface transportation system.
5. Freight Movement and Economic Vitality - To improve the national freight network, strengthen the ability of rural communities to access national and international trade markets, and support regional economic development.
6. Environmental Sustainability - To enhance the performance of the transportation system while protecting and enhancing the natural environment.
7. Reduced Project Delivery Delays - To reduce project costs, promote jobs and the economy, and expedite the movement of people and goods by accelerating project completion through eliminating delays in the project development and delivery process, including reducing regulatory burdens and improving agencies' work practices.

Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act

On December 4 2015, Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act was signed into law, replacing MAP-21. The FAST Act continued and reinforced MAP-21’s overall performance approach, and ensures that State DOTs and MPOs invest in projects that collectively make progress toward the National Goals that were established by Congress. Currently through MAP-21 and the FAST Act, State DOTs, Transit Providers, and MPOs are required to implement a performance management approach by setting performance goals, measures, and targets, and coordinating to the maximum extent practicable to ensure consistency.

Memphis Urban Area MPO's Role

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) have established a set of rulemakings for implementation of performance-based planning and programming (PBPP). Each rulemaking pertains to a particular area of transportation, and lays out the goals, measures, and data to be used in setting targets. Under the PBPP process, states, transit providers, and MPOs must link investment priorities to the achievement of performance targets.

The Memphis Urban Area MPO is coordinating with our regional, state, and federal partners to establish performance measure targets for the MPO Planning Area. With the exception of performance measures related to traffic congestion, MPO’s have the option to adopt their own performance target(s) or support the state's/transit provider's target(s). For performance measures related to traffic congestion, States and MPOs must collectively establish 2-year and 4-year targets.

As the Memphis MPO adopts performance targets and incorporates them into the both the Regional Transportation Plan and Transportation Improvement Program, the Performance Measures Addenda for the Livability 2040: Regional Transportation Plan and FY 2017-20 Transportation Improvement Program will be updated administratively. The table below identifies the dates in which MPOs are required to submit their performance targets, and the current status of targets for the Memphis MPO:

Previous Performance Measures

The links below contain information regarding performance measures that were used in previous plans and studies developed by the MPO:

• Congestion Reduction/System Reliability
• Environmental Sustainability
• Safety
• Economic Vitality/Freight Movement
• Infrastructure Condition
• Multimodal
• Collaboration
• Funding
• Land Use