What Is The Request And What Will We Get For The Funds?
FY 2015 – Performance Management Data Support Program ($10.0 million)
FY 2015 - Federal Allocation Programs - Budget Request ($000)
Difference
FY 2014 FY 2015 From FY 2014
PROGRAM ACTIVITY ENACTED REQUEST ENACTED
2/ Programs relocated from Administrative Expenses. Other Programs from Administrative Expenses was renamed to Other Safety-related Programs. Amounts for FY14 are the amounts set aside from Administrative Expenses and are shown for comparison purposes.
1/ In FY14 $7.2 million was sequestered from Emergency Relief (sequestration not reflected in table).
The Performance Management Data Support (PMDSP) program will assist metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), States, and the Department in carrying out the performance management requirements contained in title 23, United States Code. The purpose of this proposal is to provide comprehensive resources and analytical tools for the use by States and MPOs in responding to the Moving Ahead for Progress (MAP-21) performance management requirements. This program would enable FHWA to provide enhanced data and tools to assist States and MPOs in targeting operational and capital investments strategically, and implement policies effectively in support of the national transportation system.
What Is This Program?
The PMDSP would be a compilation of modified, upgraded and new data sets and analytical tools. The data and tools provide an extremely cost effective and consistent approach for State Departments of Transportation (DOTs), MPOs, and USDOT to analyze highway movement, condition, and costs; evaluate safety, economic, and environmental impacts in order to improve decision-making and investment; and respond to Federal legislative requirements in MAP-21.
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The PMDSP supports major applied efforts at the national, State and local level, including:
• The use of vehicle probe data to track real-time truck and passenger vehicle traffic on the National Highway System, which has been valuable in identifying bottlenecks, critical freight corridors, operational impacts, weather impacts and system performance. The establishment of a continued program for this data is critical for national reporting and strategic planning of investments; however, States and MPOs will also be required to utilize this data to meet MAP-21 performance reporting requirements for measures including freight, congestion, and reliability. Without this continued data, States, MPOs and FHWA will be unable to respond to MAP-21 requirements or most accurately assess national freight conditions for the development of national freight efforts. The nature of probe data makes acquisition by the USDOT for use by all State DOTs and MPOs an extremely cost effective approach and prudent use of Federal funds while at the same time providing the opportunity for consistency in the data that these entities will use for performance management of the Federal-aid system.
• Gathering household travel behavior data crossing local jurisdictional boundaries to accommodate external and through travel. The National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) provides the only publicly and privately available national and regional travel behavior data and information. However, the current granularity of the data is not sufficient to support performance management for MPOs as requested by MAP-21. The enhanced NHTS (more samples) will enable MPOs to assess external trips and through trips associated with their region without conducting over 360 separate surveys. This economy of scale can only be accomplished at the Federal level.
• The development of new and enhanced tools to conduct more effective performance analysis, as well as demonstrate the impact of project investments on performance outcomes. These tools help to identify critical performance issues impacting national performance goals and assist FHWA, States and MPOs in communicating these issues to stakeholders.
• Enhancement of critical data and analytical systems such as the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS), Traffic Monitoring and Analysis System (TMAS) and Motor Fuel and Highway Finance Analysis System for Highways (Fuels and FASH) to accommodate new data requirements as a direct result of MAP-21.
• Improvement and adaptation of the existing highway Needs and Investment Analysis software to develop improved performance predictions for the biennial Status of the Nation’s Highways, Bridges, and Transit: Conditions and Performance report to Congress.
Through FHWA’s use of these data and analytical tools, we can make smarter investments and policy decisions. Additionally, FHWA can be more responsive to public and private sector requests, resulting in better decision-making of a performance-based Federal highway program.
Why Is This Particular Program Necessary?
The PMDSP is necessary for States, MPOs and FHWA to address MAP-21 requirements, as well as to improve policy, operational and capital changes and investments to optimize the national
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transportation system. U.S. DOT is in a unique position to develop national-level data sets and tools that provide consistency and cost less than developing the same data at the State or local level, and would eliminate the need for many states to individually purchase the same data. A national-level Performance Management Data Support program would provide an advanced level of capacity for decision-making to guide investments and policy efforts. The ability to have such advanced capacity for decision-making could lead to significant cost savings for States and others by using data and analytics to define an optimal transportation system.
The use of highway performance measures has grown in recent decades and ranges in scope to include site-specific operations analysis, corridor-level alternative investments analysis, and area-wide planning and public information studies. Federal-aid authorizing legislation, such as The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century – A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), and the Moving Ahead for Progress (MAP-21) included performance management requirements. Section 1203 of MAP-21 requires USDOT to establish performance measures for the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP), the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ), and the National Freight Movement (Freight) within 18 months after
enactment of MAP-21. Additionally, this section also required twelve performance measure categories for carrying out the NHPP, HSIP, CMAQ, and Freight.
We are leading numerous activities to advance the implementation and practice of transportation performance measurement at the Federal, State, and local level. In doing so, we have developed a number of data sets and analytical tools to measure performance and guide decision-making.
Our efforts are critically important to States, MPOs, local governments and the private sector, all of which are making decisions on investments by using the information that FHWA provides in various capacities. MAP-21 requires States and MPOs to assess and report on infrastructure condition, safety, freight, congestion management, operations, and air quality. The data and analytical capacity USDOT has developed over the past decade provides stakeholders with a high-quality resource that can be applied consistently for decisional purposes to the extent possible.
As refinement of data and corresponding tools becomes increasingly necessary, it is critical for USDOT to refine our data system so we can obtain and manage higher quality, comprehensive data for implementation of a performance-based Federal highway program. Through the
purchase or collection of this data, USDOT can provide unique cost savings and comprehensive coverage to the State DOTs and MPOs. In the growing world of private data, a single purchase by USDOT can replace the need for 50 State DOTs and over 350 MPOs to each individually buy the same data at rates that are notably higher than the national rate the USDOT can negotiate.
The complete national coverage the Department brings when it develops a data set allows us to consistently consolidate, analyze, benchmark and provide it to the States in many ways that an individual State or group of States would be unable to do on their own, such as by multi-State corridors, or across all metropolitan areas. These national data sets allow States and MPOs to analyze how they fit in the national picture and understand relationships with other parts of the country, such as trading patterns, that they would be unable to do if they acquired the data at a State or metropolitan level For an investment of $10 million, the PMDSP would coordinate and improve data and analytical needs within FHWA and across operating administrations at
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USDOT. This will provide an advanced level of capacity for decision-making to guide investments and policy efforts.
The proposed program would create a robust, comprehensive and high quality data and analytical system for planning and decision-making. It differs from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) proposed Intermodal Transportation Data program in that the FHWA proposed program would focus on implementation of the performance-based Federal highway program, while the BTS proposed program would collect data on the use and value of the transportation system rather than on the system’s performance. FHWA and BTS would coordinate efforts between both data programs, make available the BTS information on use of the transportation system and the FHWA information on how the system performs to State DOTs and MPOs to support
transportation planning, investment analysis, and management at all levels of government.
Good data is critical to performance management. Poor data or old data may not capture the true performance of the transportation network and may provide misleading information when
analyzed. While all datasets have limitations, enhancing national data may provide decision-makers with a very different understanding of performance than by using poor data which leads to less efficient investments in the transportation system.
How Do You Know The Program Works?
FHWA has been engaged in performance measurement throughout its history; however, in the past decade, and in response to Federal legislative requirements for use of performance
management, FHWA has placed specific emphasis on the growth and development of data and analytical tools for use in performance measurement. Through the application of data and analytical tools, FHWA has been able to identify operational and capital investment needs, as well as policy changes that have effectively optimized the transportation network, reduced cost and guided investment.
FHWA has long partnered with the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and programs, such as the National Cooperative Highway Research Program and National Cooperative Freight
Research Program, to identify best practices and implementation of performance analysis.
FHWA, BTS. other modes within USDOT, the TRB and State and academic partners continue to refine data, measures and analytical tools that can provide the most accurate picture of
performance to guide decision-making. Based on these efforts, transportation decision-makers know best how the system is performing, and only through continuous improvement of data refinement and analytical capability can decision-making improve.
Why Do We Want/Need To Fund The Program At The Requested Level?
By investing $10 million for data and analytical tools, we can yield significant savings to State DOT’s and others, well above and beyond the cost of this program. Use of data by USDOT and its operating administrations, as well as States and local governments where applicable, can identify the difference between operational and policy improvements and smart choices about where capital investment is needed. Collection of data and the development of analytical tools at the national level, rather than State or local level, can also create significant economies of scale that reduce the overall investment required to maintain and build the infrastructure.
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