Best Practices for Performance Measurement in Transportation Operations and Maintenance

Abstract

Public agencies benefit from measuring their performance as it helps to focus employee and organizational activities. State departments of transportation have become more performance-oriented over the past two decades and routinely collect data on highway safety, infrastructure condition, system operations, project delivery, winter maintenance, transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and customer service. While the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) use performance measures in a variety of areas, the agency wants to adopt new metrics related to mobility and the responsiveness of maintenance operations. This report documents performance measurement strategies used at state transportation agencies throughout the country and proposes new performance measures in these areas for KYTC. Among the performance measures put forward to the Cabinet, the following ones ranked most highly: (1) response times for complaints and potholes, (2) contract response time, (3) percentage of time and money spent on routine and emergency maintenance of drainage, guardrail, and cable median barriers, (4) response time to repair guardrail and cable median barriers, and (5) winter maintenance operations. As KYTC further integrates performance measures into its operations, it is critical to clearly communicate performance information to the public using tools such as online dashboards and reports