Short Range Transit Plan 2008-2013 - Omnitrans

IBI GROUP
7. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS
SHORT RANGE TRANSIT PLAN REPORT
OMNITRANS COMPREHENSIVE OPERATIONAL ASSESSMENT
& SHORT RANGE TRANSIT PLAN
Service design guidelines, or performance measurement guidelines, provide an objective rationale for the
allocation of transit resources. Service design guidelines provide the tools for making decisions regarding
the provision of transit services, the design of routes and schedules, and the evaluation of services.
Service design guidelines serve five major functions:
• Service Development – Guidelines form a consistent basis for service planning,
and, in particular, for establishing minimum levels of service. Judgment and
flexibility remain, but the guidelines assist in the development of new services
and the refinement of existing services.
• Evaluation – Service design guidelines provide targets in the form of indicators
and standards that enable individual route performance to be evaluated and
monitored by management decision-makers.
• Budgeting – The preparation of annual budgets should reflect the goal of
providing service to the policy levels established in the service design guidelines.
This should enable the Board of Directors to focus on policy level decisions and
the service impacts of budget adjustments.
• Public Accountability – Political decision-makers, transit customers, voters and
taxpayers should be able to readily identify the minimum levels of service and
performance that are to be provided. The allocation of the resources of the
transit system must be seen to be based on equitable and rational criteria that
are explicit and available for public scrutiny.
• Title VI – Title VI of the Civil Rights Act requires public transit agencies receiving
federal funding to ensure that their service is provided without regard to race or
the economic status of the residents. Application of service design guidelines
provides a tool for design and evaluating service that does not discriminate on
race or economic status.
The service design guidelines are intended both to be flexible in interpretation and application and to be
continuously refined. As new types of services or data sources are introduced, revisions to the guidelines
may become appropriate. Flexibility in application and interpretation must be maintained, as the
environment in which these guidelines will be applied is not static and will continue to change as the
region grows and transportation demand increases.
The guidelines have been designed to enable Omnitrans to establish targets consistent with actual
financial resources. If, after following the fiscally conservative Constrained Scenario plan, the situation
turns around and resources start to improve, the targets could be enhanced; if resources grow more
limited, the targets could be relaxed. The guidelines will be applied to identify transit services that should
be improved or added, or may be falling below acceptable performance levels. If a service fails to meet
the identified performance level, further investigations and analysis will be undertaken to confirm whether
the guidelines are being achieved, and a broad range of potential corrective actions may be considered.
The action taken, if any, will need to be appropriate given the specific circumstances of the service in
question.
Service performance standards provide targets in the form of indicators and standards that enable
systemwide, individual route performance or service specific monitoring and evaluation by management
decision-makers. Performance standards are the benchmarks critical to the service monitoring and
evaluation program outlined in Section 6.5. In the case of contracted services such as OmniLink and
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