Performance Measures and Framework for Decision Making Under the National Transportation System

Abstract

In December 1993 Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena called for the creation of a National Transportation System (NTS). The goal of the NTS is to support national transportation planning and policy that maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's transportation network, in accordance with the mission of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). It is proposed that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) pursue this goal by designing an NTS that can monitor the performance of the nation's transportation network; detect national and regional problems with the transportation system; facilitate the setting of performance goals and measure progress over time; and aid states and metropolitan areas in performance-based planning. To do this, the NTS must evaluate the transportation network's performance in terms of moving passengers and goods and of achieving the goals of the system's users. Therefore, the NTS must have as its basis a set of performance measures that apply to different modes and that reflect the varied goals of ISTEA, in the areas of system output as well as the environmental, social, and economic outcomes of system usage. Such performance measures are proposed, as is a general decision-making framework for using them. The ISTEA legislation, the NTS initiative, and potential data sources for supporting these performance measures are also examined.