Performance Measures and Targets
What is Performance-Based Planning?
The Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) outlines performance measures and targets as part of the performance-based approach to planning and programming activities that were first established by MAP-21 in 2012, then continued by the FAST Act. Performance-based planning requirements will ensure that the selection of transportation and transit projects show progress toward meeting national goals established to improve the overall transportation and transit system. The Johnson City MTPO has partnered with TDOT and the two local transit providers, JCT and NET Trans, by signing a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a cooperative process to develop, share and report information related to performance measures and performance targets that will show progress toward national goals, which are explained in more detail below.
Transportation National Goals with Performance Measures & Targets
Title 23 of the USC, Section 150(b) lists the seven (7) national goals that were established to address safety, infrastructure, traffic congestion, efficiency, environment, transportation delays, and project delivery delays. The Transportation Goals Table (linked below) outlines each national goal, the performance measures that have been established by FHWA to make progress toward meeting those goals, along with their corresponding performance targets (if available), and their status of establishment by TDOT and the Johnson City MTPO. Please note that at this time, only the performance targets for safety have been established by TDOT and the Johnson City MTPO.
Transit National Goals with Performance Measures & Targets
FTA has also established performance measures and targets for the public transit agencies for a strategic and systematic process of operating, maintaining, and improvement public capital assets effectively through their entire life cycle, along with requirements for safety management systems. The final rule for Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (new Part 673 for Title 49 of the CFR) is also available and implementation of those targets are forthcoming.
Linking Performance Measures and Targets to Project Selection from the MTP to the TIP
Section 2.2 on page 11 of the TIP document describes the process and the criteria that are used to select projects to include in the TIP. As stated earlier in this document, projects are derived from the Johnson City MTPO 2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP), which was last updated in 2018. The MTPO considers the ten (10) federal planning factors (page 15) when creating the criteria to select projects to include in the MTP and the TIP. Future updates to the MTP will also include the aforementioned performance measures and the selection of projects will show progress toward meeting the established performance targets. The MTP/TIP Linkage Table (linked below) demonstrates the linkage between the goals and objectives within the 2045 MTP to the federal planning factors and national goals in the FAST Act. As you can see, the four goals and corresponding objectives in the MTP support achievement of each of the seven (7) national goals and each of the ten (10) federal planning factors. Current projects in the TIP can be shown to support improving safety and congestion, as they improve safety at intersections, improve traffic flow in congested corridors, and improve bridges.
