Introduction

The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) enacted in 2012, and the subsequent Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), enacted in 2015, established a national performance measurement system for the highway and transit programs. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) instituted this performance management requirement by establishing performance measures for four categories through rulemakings:

• Highway Safety
• Pavement and Bridge Condition
• System Performance
• Transit Asset Conditions

The state departments of transportation (state DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) are required to establish targets for each highway performance measure while transit agencies and MPOs set targets for transit asset conditions. MPOs have 180 days after DOTs adopt statewide targets to choose either to set quantitative targets for their metropolitan planning areas or commit to the state’s targets. For the highway measures, at the conclusion of each performance period, the USDOT assesses whether “significant progress” has been made toward achieving the highway targets, which is defined differently depending on the measure. If states do not make significant progress, they are required to submit documentation to FHWA on how they will reach the targets; in certain cases, states are also required to program more federal funds toward improving conditions. No penalties are assessed on MPOs or transit agencies. Once the targets are established, MPOs are directed to show how the investments in the transportation improvement program (TIP) help achieve the targets. Furthermore, each performance measure’s baseline and targets must be included in a System Performance Report in the MPO’s long-range transportation plan to document the condition and performance of the transportation system with respect to required performance measures.

Process

As part of complying with the national performance measurement system established by MAP 21, Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), the Champaign-Urbana MPO (CUUATS), and the local transit agency, Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD), have established a process for data sharing, target setting, and reporting. More information on this can be found here.

The following table shows the past and upcoming target setting timelines for the federal performance measures.

Past and Upcoming Target-Setting Timelines for the Performance Measures

[1] https://ccrpc.org/agenda_detail_T3_R158.php
[2] https://ccrpc.org/agenda_detail_T3_R163.php
[3] 12/13/23 CUUATS Policy Committee Meeting 
[4] https://ccrpc.org/agenda_detail_T3_R164.php

The safety performance measures require state DOTs and MPOs to establish safety targets as five-year rolling averages on all public roads for:

1. The number of fatalities
2. The rate of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT)
3. The number of serious injuries
4. The rate of serious injuries per 100 million VMT
5. The number of non-motorized fatalities and non-motorized serious injuries

State Targets¶

Injuries and fatalities from traffic crashes vary considerably from year to year due to numerous factors, and the five-year average is meant to smooth large changes. IDOT must adopt targets for each safety measure by August 31 on an annual basis. MPOs must establish targets within 180 days after IDOT. MPOs can either choose to adopt the state’s targets (Table 1) or set their own quantitative targets.

Table 1: PM1, Illinois State Baseline and Targets

MPO Targets and Performance¶

CUUATS Policy Committee approved the PM1 targets for 2018 through 2020 based on goals established in the LRTP 2040, approved in December 2014.
Goals established in the LRTP 2045, approved in December 2019, were adopted by the CUUATS Policy Committee as PM1 targets for 2021 through 2023. The MPO targets did not differ significantly from the state’s targets but were generally more ambitious than the state’s targets and consistent with the regional LRTPs.
Table 2 presents the 2021-2023 PM1 baseline, targets, and 2022 performance assessment for the Champaign-Urbana MPA.

Table 2: PM1, Champaign-Urbana MPA 2021-2023 Baseline, Targets, and Performance

In December 2023, the CUUATS Policy Committee adopted the state's targets as the federal PM1 targets for 2024. The primary reason is most of the IDOT's safety targets are more ambitious than the LRTP 2045 targets for 2024. Besides, CUUATS is currently in the process of updating the LRTP 2050 and will revise the safety objectives and targets in 2024 using the latest available data. Table 3 presents the 2024 PM1 baseline and targets for the Champaign-Urbana MPA.

Table 3: PM1, Champaign-Urbana MPA 2024 Baseline and Targets

Pavement and Bridge Conditions (PM2)

The infrastructure condition performance measures require state DOTs and MPOs to establish targets for:

1. Percentage of pavements of the Interstate System in Good condition
2. Percentage of pavements of the Interstate System in Poor condition
3. Percentage of pavements of the non-Interstate National Highway System (NHS) in Good condition
4. Percentage of pavements of the non-Interstate NHS in Poor condition
5. Percentage of NHS bridges classified as in Good condition
6. Percentage of NHS bridges classified as in Poor condition

State Targets¶

IDOT established PM2 targets for 2024 and 2026 in November 2022 (Table 4). IDOT uses the Condition Rating Survey (CRS) method for rating pavement condition in Illinois, and assigns pavement condition ratings based on pavement distress, such as International Roughness Index (IRI), rutting, cracking, and deterioration. IDOT performs bi-yearly safety inspections and condition assessments of bridges. This is the designated frequency in National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS). Through these inspections, condition rating data is collected for the deck, super structure, and substructure and an overall rating of Good, Fair, or Poor condition is assigned to each bridge metric per calendar year.

Table 4: PM2, Illinois State Baseline and Targets

MPO Targets and Performance¶

The National Highway System (NHS) within the MPA is the focus of PM2. The NHS is a federal designation for roadways considered important to the nation’s economy. In the Champaign-Urbana MPA, this includes all the interstates and some non-interstate roadways, such as state routes and several local roadways. 

The CUUATS Policy Committee adopted the state’s PM2 targets for the Champaign-Urbana MPA after an analysis of MPA’s 2021 pavement and bridge baseline condition data (table 5). CUUATS receives pavement and bridge condition data from IDOT.

Table 5: PM2 2022 baseline, 2024 and 2026 targets for the Champaign-Urbana MPA.

System Performance (PM3)¶

The system performance measures require state DOTs and MPOs to establish targets for:

1. Percent of reliable person-miles traveled on the Interstate
2. Percent of reliable person-miles traveled on the non-Interstate NHS
3. Percentage of Interstate system mileage providing for reliable truck travel time – Truck Travel Time Reliability Index

For MPOs in non-attainment or maintenance status, there are three additional performance measures on traffic congestion assessment that are not applicable for the Champaign-Urbana MPA.

State Targets¶

The PM3 measures require the use of the National Performance Management Research Data Set (NPMRDS). IDOT has procured The Regional Integrated Transportation Information System (RITIS) to analyze the NPMDRS and provided access to RITIS for the MPOs within the state to use. IDOT established PM3 targets for 2024 and 2026 in November 2022 (Table 6).

Table 6: PM3, Illinois State Baseline and Targets

MPO Targets¶

CUUATS adopted the state’s PM3 targets. Table 7 presents the PM3 2022 baseline, 2024 and 2026 targets.

Table 7: PM3, Champaign-Urbana MPA Baseline, Targets, and Performance

Transit Asset Management (TAM)¶

Transit Asset Management (TAM) is applicable to providers who are recipients or sub-recipients of Federal financial assistance under 49 U.S.C. Chapter 53. TAM is an effort to keep assets and equipment in transit systems in a state of good repair, so the systems contribute to the safety of the system as a whole. This supports the idea that a vehicle in good repair will minimize risk and maximize safety. TAM measures performance for the following asset categories:

1. Equipment
2. Facilities
3. Infrastructure
4. Rolling Stock

The TAM Final Rule requires recipients to set one or more performance targets per asset class based on State of Good Repair measures. The Final Rule also requires transit providers to coordinate with MPOs, to the maximum extent practicable, in the selection of MPO performance targets. The coordination amongst transit providers and MPOs should influence transportation funding investment decisions and is intended to increase the likelihood that transit state of good repair needs are programmed, committed to, and funded as part of the planning process.

MTD Targets and performance¶

The following tables show the C-U MTD’s TAM targets and performance by categories. 

Table 8: TAM Facilities, MTD Targets and Performance

Transit Safety

MTD adopted the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP) in April, 2022 in compliance with the United States Department of Transportation Final Rule 49 C.F.R. Part 673 Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan. PTASP addresses all applicable requirements and standards as set forth in FTA’s Public Transportation Safety Program and the National Public Transportation Safety Plan.

The FTA has established four performance measures in the National Public Transportation Safety Plan:

• Fatalities
• Injuries
• Safety Events
• System Reliability

On an annual basis, MTD will update the Safety Performance Targets based on performance measures from the previous five years and submit transit safety performance targets to CUUATS and IDOT, as shown in Table 11 – 16. 

Table 11: Current Performance (MTD Fixed Route Service)

Table 12: Current Performance (MTD Directly Operated Demand Response Service)

Performance Targets

The tables below show the Performance Targets for the 2022 and 2023 calendar years. The rate used for MB-DO is per 1,000,000 vehicle revenue miles. The rate used for DR-DO is per 50,000 vehicle revenue miles.

Table 13: 2022 MTD Performance Targets

Table 14: 2023 MTD Performance Targets

Aspirational Performance Targets

The tables below show the Performance Targets for the 2022 and 2023 calendar years. The rate used for MB-DO is per 1,000,000 vehicle revenue miles. The rate used for DR-DO is per 50,000 vehicle revenue miles. The aspirational targets represent a 5% improvement over the 2023 Performance Targets.

Table 15: 2022 MTD Aspirational Performance Targets

Conclusion

The emphasis on setting and achieving performance targets represents a major change in the federal transportation program ushered in by MAP-21 and the FAST Act. The required MPO targets are a chance for the region to continue connecting short-term performance measurements to longer-term regional priorities. The MPO target-setting requirements also give the region another avenue to call attention to the large investment and funding needs for different elements of the system. CUUATS will continue tracking and updating these measures as needed.