UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Customer-Focused Performance...

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY

Customer-Focused Performance Measures

(Looking for a few good measures)

byPhilip J. Tarnoff

For the ITS America Annual MeetingPhoenix, AZ 2005



Scope of Presentation

• Performance Measurement – A very brief overview

• Ongoing activities (looking for a few good measures)

• Mid-year ITE Meeting Round Table

• Candidate measures



Definition

“The use of statistical evidence to determine progress toward specific defined organizational objectives. This includes both evidence of actual fact, such as the measurement of pavement surface smoothness, and measurement of customer perception such as would be accomplished through a customer satisfaction survey.”

Source: “Performance-Based Planning manual (Preliminary Draft)”, NCHRP Project 8-32, 2005



Implications of the Definition• Of little value unless organizational objectives

have been defined

• Results achieved by others might be used to establish agency objectives (benchmarking)

• Recognizes that not all measures can be quantified

• Implicit distinction between internal and external uses

• May not reflect the needs of operations (i.e. real-time information to support decision making of both operators and the public)



Ongoing Activity• Initiated by AASHTO Performance Measures

Task Force• Supported by the National Transportation

Operations Coalition• Project being conducted jointly by the:

– International City/County Management Association (ICMA), Center for Performance Measurement

– University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology

• One year project scheduled for completion spring 2005



The Project• Goal – A common set of performance

measures for evaluating the management and operations activities of participating public agencies.

• Define a candidate list of (about 10) performance measures for further study

• Address– Non-recurring congestion– Recurring congestion– System-wide performance

• Agree on definitions for selected measures



Contract Activities

• Literature review• Meet with Steering Committee to

develop short-list of measures• Distribute questionnaire • Refine shortlist and define measures

(mid-year ITE meeting• Prepare final set of definitions and final

report.



Literature Review• Objective to define state-of-the-art of

performance measurement

• Reviewed more than 50 relevant references

• Identified more than 150 different measures

• Many measures are variations of other, similar measures

• Defined a set of high level measures for initial consideration



The Initial Short List of 14 High Level Measures

• Customer Satisfaction• Extent of Congestion• Recurring Delay• Incident Delay• Emissions• Incident Characteristics• Intersection Level of

Service

• Reliability• Safety• Speed• Throughput per Person• Throughput per Vehicle• Travel Time – Link• Travel Time –

Origin/Destination



Mid-Year ITE Meeting – Round Table Discussion

• National performance measure “consistency” only needed to:– Justify funding/resource requests

– Communicate with our customers

– Baseline/benchmarking• Other applications for performance measures do

not require national consistency including:– Management

– Evaluation of operational effectiveness



Mid-Year Meeting Continued• All measures should ultimately support

communications with our customers– Accountability– Responsiveness

• It is not currently possible to efficiently collect all data for the “ideal” measures – Interim measures should be defined

• Important measures include;– Travel time– Travel time reliability– Emissions– Customer satisfaction with operations



Final Set of Measures1. Customer Satisfaction2. Extent of Congestion3. Delay – Non-Recurring4. Delay - Recurring5. Incident Duration6. Speed7. Throughput – Person8. Throughput – Vehicle9. Travel Time – Link10.Travel Time – Reliability11.Travel Time - Trip



Issues• They’re important, but do we need to standardize

real-time measures?• Given the industry’s “spotty” track record, is it

possible/practical to standardize measures?• Given the number of dimensions is it possible to

standardize on a few good (10) measures?• How do you measure customer satisfaction?• Are comparisons among agencies all that

undesirable?• Does standardization of measures lead to

additional costs?

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY Customer-Focused Performance...

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