Conference Proceedings 26 - Transportation Research Board

TRANSPORTATION DATA AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT 79looking at conditions in varying geographical areaswithin the jurisdiction of the agency. If all areas performsimilarly, the result conveys more certainty. Ifonly one or two areas have poor results, then additionalanalysis can focus on those areas to determinewhether there is reason to believe data accuracy issuesare causing them to stand apart. Another approachis to look at related measures, which the underlyingprocess suggests should be correlated withperformance in areas prone to inaccurate data. Ifeach measure points in the same direction, then theagency can be more confident of the results.Analysis of performance also should consider combiningfeedback and performance data for a morecomplete picture. Data on changes in miles of badpavement, for example, could be combined with customerfeedback gained through pavement satisfactionsurveys. One result can help verify and explain theother, and when results vary, it can point to the needto reevaluate the measures used.Finally, analysis must consider the impact that themeasures have on each other. Three goals have alreadybeen suggested for a highway organization:smooth pavement, reduced congestion, and fewercrashes. Success in increasing the smoothness ofpavements may encourage higher speeds, which willincrease crashes. A heavy commitment of resourcesto capacity projects may reduce resources availableto pavement renewal or to safety improvements. Ananalytic process must be sufficiently complex to allowthe policy choices to be highlighted and the relativeimpact of each to be understood. If competinggoals cannot be analyzed, the results achieved will behaphazard.Managers of highway systems are not alone in facingsuch challenges. Transit operators usually areforced to balance the need for efficiency with theneed to provide mobility for people in low-densityareas. Efficiency measures would tend to lead the operatorto discontinue less-used routes. However, thedemands for access to jobs in less-dense suburbanlocations might lead the operator to add more suchroutes. Policy makers and managers must be able tounderstand the interaction of these two goals thatmay be polar opposites in terms of their implementation.If policy makers determine greater mobility tobe the primary goal, they must either accept a reducedemphasis on efficiency or adopt a system ofperformance measurement that is sufficiently complexto differentiate the efficiency of various types ofservices or routes.Both of these examples of competing goals requirereasonably sophisticated analytic processes that allowfor various policy options to be considered initerations, so that the interplay of those options canbe understood.Accepting Performance MeasuresAs transportation agencies move through the stagesof the performance measurement process, it is importantfor them to keep in mind that a system willfail unless it has buy-in from customers, stakeholders,and employees. Agencies should view the developmentof a performance measurement system as anart, not a science. If performance measurement werea science, there would be one best way to do it. Thereis not. Given that performance measurement is anart, an agency’s top managers must view themselvesas artists who find creative ways to bring the brushstrokes of all interest groups into a coherent form.Top management needs to set the agency’s strategicdirection and goals as well as broaden involvementin developing the performance measures that theagency uses. If done successfully, each group will believein the results and be willing to act on them toachieve real improvement.To ensure buy-in, an agency must consider notonly what it does but also how it is done. Many ofthe points made in discussing the performance measurementprocess bear repeating because ignoringthem will hurt the buy-in process. First, managementmust keep the measures few and simple. Second,management needs to ensure that the measures aredirectly related to agency strategic goals and directlyinfluenced by agency activities. Third, performancemeasures must be developed and used as tools forimproving critical processes, not as report cards. Finally,management must invest staff and resources inreliable data-collection systems and in the analyticmethods required for timely analysis and reportingof results. A significant breakdown on any of thesepoints will lessen the effectiveness of the performancemeasurement process and reduce the ability of theagency to successfully accomplish true process improvements.CUSTOMER IDENTIFICATIONThe earlier discussion focuses largely on measuresthat come from a transportation agency’s standarddata systems. Pavement quality, congestion, andcrashes can be reduced to hard numbers and are routinelyreported in most agencies. These are the traditionaltransportation measures. Customer measuresprovide another view of many of these traditionalmeasures; they may provide a subjective overall as-