6 - Transportation Performance Management (TPM) and Anticipated Effects
Pursuant to federal requirements, MPOs must employ a transportation performance management approach in carrying out their federally-required planning and programming activities. Chapter 23 part 150(b) of the United States Code [23USC §150(b)] includes the following seven national performance goals for the federal-Aid Highway Program:
Safety – To achieve a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads.
Capital Assets Condition – To maintain the highway infrastructure and transit capital asset systems in a state of good repair.
Congestion Reduction – To achieve a significant reduction in congestion on the National Highway System.
System Reliability – To improve the efficiency of the surface transportation system.
Freight Movement and Economic Vitality – To improve the national freight network, strengthen the ability of rural communities to access national and international trade markets, and support regional economic development.
Environmental Sustainability – To enhance the performance of the transportation system while protecting and enhancing the natural environment.
Reduced Project Delivery Delays – To reduce project costs, promote jobs and the economy, and expedite the movement of people and goods by accelerating project completion through eliminating delays in the project development and delivery process, including reducing regulatory burdens and improving agencies' work practice.
On the public transportation side, transportation performance management shall be utilized to advance the general policy and purposes of the public transportation program as included in 49USC §5301(a) and (b).
The Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council (GBNRTC) TIP was developed and is managed in cooperation with the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA). It reflects the investment priorities established in the MTP Moving Forward 2050, which incorporates comments and input from affected agencies and organizations and the public.
TIPs “shall include, to the maximum extent practicable, a description of the anticipated effects of the transportation improvement program toward achieving the performance targets established in the metropolitan transportation plan, linking investment priorities to those performance targets” [23USC §134(j)(2)(D)]. TIPs and metropolitan transportation plans (MTPs) adopted or amended after the following dates must include performance targets for the associated measures:
May 27, 2018 – Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) and Highway Safety
October 1, 2018 – Transit Asset Management
May 20, 2019 – Pavement and Bridge Condition
May 20, 2019 – System Performance/Freight/Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ)
July 20, 2021 – Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan
This portion of the adopted TIP meets the requirements of 23USC §134(j)(2)(D).
HSIP and Highway Safety
Performance Targets
On March 15, 2016, FHWA published the final rule for the HSIP and Safety Performance Management (Safety PM) Measures in the Federal Register with an effective date of April 14, 2016.
The 2017 New York Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) is intended to reduce “the number of fatalities and serious injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes on public roads in New York State.” The SHSP guides NYSDOT, the MPOs, and other safety partners in addressing safety and defines a framework for implementation activities to be carried out across New York State. The NYSDOT HSIP annual report documents the statewide performance targets.
The GBNRTC agreed to support the NYSDOT statewide 2023 targets for the following Safety PM measures based on five-year rolling averages per Title 23 Part 490.207 of the Code of Federal Regulations on 9/7/22 via Resolution 2022-10:
Anticipated Effects
Safety is a critical component of GBNRTC’s mission, and the projects on the TIP are consistent with the need to address safety. Safety is a primary consideration in the selection of projects to be included in the TIP. The GBNRTC TIP selection process includes safety project proposals to reduce excessive vehicle and pedestrian collision occurrences that may result in injuries and/or fatalities.
Potential TIP safety projects first undergo an extensive safety analysis which also determines possible improvements/solutions. The TIP includes projects programmed with HSIP funds and other fund sources that are expected to materially benefit the safety of the traveling public on roadways throughout the metropolitan planning area. The anticipated effect of the overall program is that it will contribute toward achieving NYSDOT’s safety performance targets.
TIP Project Examples
Transit Asset Management
Performance Targets
On July 26, 2016, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published the final Transit Asset Management rule. This rule applies to all recipients and subrecipients of federal transit funding that own, operate, or manage public transportation capital assets. The rule defines the term “state of good repair” (SGR), requires that public transportation providers develop and implement transit asset management (TAM) plans, and establishes performance measures for four transit asset categories: rolling stock, equipment, transit infrastructure, and facilities. The rule became effective on October 1, 2016.
Public transportation providers must establish TAM targets annually for the following fiscal year and report to the FTA. Each provider shares its targets with the MPO in which the provider’s projects and services are programmed in the MPO’s TIP. The MPO is required to establish its first set of TAM targets within 180 days of the date that public transportation provider established its first targets. After this, MPOs are not required to establish TAM targets each year after the transit provider establishes targets. Instead, MPOs must set updated TAM targets when the MPO updates its LRTP.
When establishing transit asset management targets, the MPO can either agree to program projects that will support the transit provider targets or establish its own separate transit asset management targets for the MPO planning area.
FTA defines two tiers of public transportation providers based on size parameters. Tier I providers are those that operate rail service or more than 100 vehicles in all fixed route modes, or more than 100 vehicles in one non-fixed route mode. Tier II providers are those that are a subrecipient of FTA 5311 funds, or a State or Indian Tribe, or have 100 or less vehicles across all fixed route modes, or have 100 vehicles or less in one non-fixed route mode. Tier I providers must establish their own transit asset management targets, while Tier II providers have the option to establish their own targets or to participate in a group plan with other Tier II providers whereby targets are established by a plan sponsor for the entire group. A state DOT is typically the group TAM plan sponsor.
The GBNRTC has the following transit providers operating in the planning area: Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA).
The NFTA set the following transit asset management targets on Oct 1st, 2018:
The GBNRTC agreed to support these transit asset targets on 11/7/2018 via Resolution 2018-23. With this action, the GBNRTC agrees to plan and program projects in the TIP that will, once implemented, make progress toward achieving the transit asset targets.
Anticipated Effects
The GBNRTC TIP was developed and is managed in cooperation with the NFTA. The TIP includes specific investment priorities that support the MPO’s goals, including transit asset management, using a project selection process that is anticipated to address transit SGR in the MPO planning area. The MPO’s goal of addressing transit asset condition is linked to the investment plan of the NFTA, and the process used to prioritize the projects within the TIP is consistent with federal requirements.
The focus of GBNRTC’s investments that address transit SGR include:
Projects, programs, and strategies funded in the TIP that address transit equipment, vehicles, infrastructure, or facilities in the MPO area include:
Replacing buses and paratransit vehicles nearing end of service
Bus/LRRT preventative maintenance
LRRT Capital Maintenance Rehabilitation
Upgrading Customer Communications Systems
Metro Bus Facility building repairs/upgrades
Elevator controller replacement
Rail car video surveillance upgrades and repairs
Replacing existing bus shelters
Transit capital projects included in the TIP that contribute to the maintenance of the system are originally determined at the division-level of each business center. Here, NFTA management and staff continually evaluate system conditions to identify needed preventive or corrective maintenance projects. Such evaluations include on-going asset inspections, state-of-good-repair studies, and asset condition reporting to assess the asset’s working condition, performance, level of maintenance, and age relative to FTA’s Useful Life Policies (FTA C 5010.1D). The asset condition reporting system uses an FTA-suggested criteria that assigns a condition score on a scale ranging from 5 (excellent condition) to 0 (non-operable). Capital assets that have a condition rating of 2.5 or less, are deemed to present a safety issue, or are subject to regulatory mandate are subsequently prioritized and targeted for rehabilitation or replacement. These projects often include facility upgrades, equipment and vehicle replacements, and other transit infrastructure and safety projects.
The GBNRTC anticipates that the projects in the TIP, once implemented, will contribute toward achieving the established transit asset management targets. Improving the state of good repair (SGR) of transit capital assets is an overarching goal of the MPO.
TIP Project Examples
Pavement and Bridge Condition
Performance Targets
On January 18, 2017, FHWA published the Pavement and Bridge Condition Performance Measures Final Rule in the Federal Register. This second FHWA performance measure rule, which has an effective date of May 20, 2017 (originally February 17, 2017), established six performance measures to assess pavement conditions and bridge conditions for the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP).
The pavement condition measures represent the percentage of lane-miles on the Interstate and non-Interstate National Highway System (NHS) that are in good or poor condition. FHWA established five pavement condition metrics1: International Roughness Index (IRI); cracking percent; rutting; faulting; and Present Serviceability Rating (PSR). FHWA set a threshold for each metric to establish good, fair, or poor condition. Each section of pavement is classified as being in good condition or poor condition based upon the ratings of the metrics applicable to that pavement type. Pavement sections that are not good or poor condition are classified as fair.
The bridge condition measures represent the percentage of bridges, by deck area, on the NHS that are in good condition or poor condition2. The condition of each bridge is evaluated by assessing four bridge components: deck, superstructure, substructure, and culverts. The Final Rule created a metric rating threshold for each component to establish good, fair, or poor condition. If the lowest rating of the four metrics is greater than or equal to seven, the structure is classified as good. If the lowest rating is less than or equal to four, the structure is classified as poor. If the lowest rating is five or six, it is classified as fair.
NYSDOT established the statewide pavement and bridge condition performance targets in the table that follows on May 20, 2018. The GBNRTC agreed to support the NYSDOT statewide targets on 11/7/2018 via Resolution 2018-16. The table also lists performance for each measure for the 2017 baseline year and for 2019.
The two-year and four-year targets represent pavement and bridge condition at the end of calendar years 2019 and 2021.
1 Per FHWA, “To ensure consistent definitions, a distinction between ‘performance measure’ and ‘performance Metric’ was made in 23 CFR 490.101. A ‘metric’ is defined as a quantifiable indicator of performance or condition whereas a ‘measure’ is defined as an expression based on a metric that is used to establish targets and to assess progress toward meeting the established targets.” (FHWA Computation Procedure for the Pavement Condition Measures – FHWA-HIF-18-022, FHWA Office of Infrastructure and Office of Policy & Governmental Affairs, April 2018)
2 The sum of total deck area of good or poor NHS bridges is divided by the total deck area of all bridges carrying the NHS to determine the percent of bridges in good or in poor condition. Deck area is calculated by multiplying the structure length by either the deck width or approach roadway width.
Anticipated Effects
Maintaining (and, where possible, improving) the condition of NHS pavements and bridges is a critical component of GBNRTC’s mission, and the projects on the TIP are consistent with the need to address the condition of these infrastructure assets. NHS highway and bridge conditions are primary considerations in the selection of projects to be included in the TIP.
Pavement condition data continues to be collected through a two-year cycle of manual windshield survey road scoring for non-state facilities on odd numbered years. Pavement conditions can range from 1 (worst) to 10 (new). 2021 non-state data has been collected and has been be released. Non-state data collection will soon transition fully electronic to duplicate statewide approach changes and to accommodate FAST Act performance requirements.
For state owned facilities, electronic pavement condition data has been collected by NYSDOT and is currently being compiled and reported through online access and analysis software. Unfortunately, there have been delays distributing this data. As such, the latest available pavement condition scores will be used in this report until the electronic data becomes available.
Bridge condition data is taken from the National Bridge Inventory (NBI). The NBI is a collection of information (database) describing the more than 600,000 of the Nation's bridges located on public roads, including Interstate Highways, U.S. highways, State and county roads, as well as publicly-accessible bridges on federal lands.
In the first stage of new TIP development, GBNRTC members receive a System Conditions report that includes summaries of the collected pavement and bridge data. This report is for use in developing TIP candidate projects.
The TIP includes projects programmed with NHPP funds and other fund sources:
Bridge maintenance/preservation projects
Bridge repair projects
Bridge rehabilitation/replacement projects
Pavement maintenance/preservation projects
Pavement repair projects
Pavement rehabilitation/replacement projects
The GBNRTC anticipates that the projects in the TIP, once implemented, will contribute toward achieving NYSDOT’s pavement and bridge condition targets.
TIP Project Examples
System Performance, Freight, and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality
Performance Targets
On January 18, 2017, FHWA published the system performance, freight, and CMAQ Performance Measures Final Rule in the Federal Register. This third and final FHWA performance measure rule, which has an effective date of May 20, 2017 (originally February 17, 2017), established six performance measures to assess the performance of the NHS, freight movement on the Interstate System, and traffic congestion and on-road mobile source emissions for the CMAQ Program.
There are two NHS performance measures that represent the reliability of travel times for all vehicles on the Interstate and non-Interstate NHS. FHWA established the Level of Travel Time Reliability (LOTTR) metric to calculate reliability on both the Interstate and non-Interstate NHS. LOTTR is defined as the ratio of longer travel times (80th percentile) to a normal travel time (50th percentile) during four time periods from the hours of 6 AM to 8 PM each day (AM peak, midday, and PM peak on Mondays through Fridays and weekends). The LOTTR ratio is calculated for each segment of applicable roadway. A segment is reliable if its LOTTR is less than 1.5 during all time periods. If one or more time periods has a LOTTR of 1.5 or above, that segment is unreliable. The measures are expressed as the percentage of person-miles traveled on the Interstate and non- Interstate NHS that are reliable.
The single freight movement performance measure represents the reliability of travel times for trucks on the Interstate system. FHWA established the Truck Travel Time Reliability (TTTR) Index, which is defined as the ratio of longer truck travel times (95th percentile) to a normal truck travel time (50th percentile). The TTTR Index is calculated for each segment of the Interstate system over five time periods from all hours of each day (AM peak, midday, and PM peak on Mondays through Fridays, overnights for all days, and weekends). The highest TTTR Index value among the five time periods is multiplied by the length of the segment, and the sum of all length-weighted segments is then divided by the total length of Interstate to generate the TTTR Index.
There are three traffic congestion and on-road mobile source emissions performance measures that represent peak hour excessive delay per capita (PHED), non-single occupancy vehicle (SOV) travel, and total on-road mobile source emissions reductions. The GBNRTC meets all current air quality standards and is not subject to establishing targets for these performance measures.
NYSDOT established the statewide system performance and freight performance targets in the table below on May 20, 2018. The GBNRTC agreed to support the NYSDOT statewide targets on 11/7/2018 via Resolution 2018-16. The table also lists performance for each measure for the 2017 baseline year and for 2019.
Anticipated Effects
Providing for the reliable movement of people and goods is a critical component of GBNRTC’s mission, and the projects on the TIP are consistent with the need to address the reliability of travel times for vehicles, including trucks. These are primary considerations in the selection of projects to be included in the TIP.
The consistency of travel times is an important factor for users of the transportation system. When congestion is highly variable, travelers must incorporate additional time into their trips to ensure they arrive at their destination at the desired time.
An established target of clearing 66% of all incidents within 30 minutes each month on roadways is monitored by NITTEC.
Reliability is tracked at a regional/system, corridor, and transit level using NPMRDS. The GBNRTC Regional Travel Demand Model and NFTA data are used for analysis:
Level of Travel Time Reliability (LOTTR)
Person Hours of Excessive Delay (PHED)
Planning Time Index (PTI) (95th Percentile)
Travel Time Index (TTI)
Corridor travel speed data is evaluated at ten-minute intervals between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM on non-holiday weekdays for the following:
Route 33 Eastbound, Route 33 Westbound
I-290 Eastbound
I-290 Westbound
I-190 Southbound from South
I-190 Southbound from North
I-90 Westbound, I-190 Northbound from North
I-190 Northbound from South
I-90 Eastbound
The TIP includes projects programmed with funds from various funding programs that have benefits to reliability in travel times for people and freight. Example projects include:
Go Buffalo-Niagara TDM Project (bike share, vanpool & carpool programs)
Buffalo-Niagara Regional Arterial Management System (BNRAMS)
NITTEC Traffic Operations Center
National Highway Freight Program (NHFP) projects
Intersection Improvement projects
Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) projects
ITS System improvements
Traffic signal/controller replacement projects
Bicycle and pedestrian projects
The GBNRTC anticipates that the projects in the TIP, once implemented, will contribute toward achieving NYSDOT’s system performance and freight performance targets.
The TIP includes projects programmed with funds from various funding programs that have benefits to reliability in travel times for people and freight.
TIP Project Examples
Transit Safety
Performance Targets
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published a final Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP) rule on July 19, 2018. Under this rulemaking, providers of public transportation systems that are a recipient or sub-recipient of FTA Urbanized Area Formula Grant Program funds under 49 U.S.C. Section 5307, or that operate a rail transit system that is subject to FTA’s State Safety Oversight Program, must develop and implement a PTASP based on a Safety Management Systems (SMS) approach. As it relates to this documentation, each PTASP must include performance targets based on the safety performance measures established in FTA’s National Public Transportation Safety Plan (NSP). Other elements of a PTASP include but are not limited to approval by the agency’s Accountable Executive and Board of Directors, designation of a Chief Safety Officer, documented processes of the agency’s SMS, an employee reporting program, and process and timeline for annual reviews and updates of the PTASP.
Providers subject to the rule must annually certify a PTASP, including targets for transit safety measures that cover fatalities, injuries, safety events, and system reliability. The date by which providers must first certify a PTASP and targets was initially July 20, 2020. However, FTA extended the deadline to July 20, 2021, to provide regulatory flexibility due to the operational challenges presented by the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Upon establishing transit safety targets, a public transportation provider must make the targets available to the MPO in which the provider’s projects and services are programmed in the MPO’s TIP. The MPO is required to establish its first set of transit safety targets within 180 days of the date that provider established its first targets. After this, MPOs are not required to establish transit safety targets each year after the transit provider establishes targets. Instead, MPOs must set updated targets when the MPO updates its LRTP.
An MPO must reflect the transit safety targets in any LRTP and TIP updated on or after July 20, 2021. When establishing transit safety targets, the MPO can either agree to program projects that will support the transit provider targets or establish its own separate targets for the MPO planning area.
The following transit providers subject to the PTASP rule operate in the GBNRTC planning area: NFTA. These provider(s) are responsible for developing a PTASP and establishing transit safety targets annually.
The NFTA set the following transit safety targets on February 25th, 2021:
The GBNRTC agreed to support NFTA transit safety targets on 11/12/2021 via Resolution 2021-34, thus agreeing to plan and program projects that are anticipated to make progress toward achieving the targets.
Anticipated Effects
The GBNRTC TIP was developed and is managed in cooperation with the NFTA. The TIP includes specific investment priorities that support the MPO’s goals, including transit safety, using a project selection process that is anticipated to address transit operations in the MPO planning area. The MPO’s goal of addressing transit safety is linked to the safety plans of the NFTA, and the process used to prioritize the projects within the TIP is consistent with federal requirements.
All identified hazards will be monitored by NFTA through the Hazard Tracking Log (HTL). An HTL shall be used for tracking the safety risk management process. Additional documentation, such as comprehensive corrective action plans, shall be developed for those hazards requiring complex and multifaceted resolutions.
The order of preference for the means to be used in resolving hazards at NFTA shall be as follows:
Design, redesign, refurbish, or retrofit to eliminate the hazards through design selection.
Replace the system or equipment that produces a hazard with a system or equipment that does not produce a hazard.
Hazards that cannot be eliminated or substituted shall be controlled to an acceptable level through the use of fixed, automatic, or other protective safety design feature or device.
When neither design nor safety devices can effectively eliminate nor control an identified hazard, devices shall be used to detect the condition and generate an adequate warning signal to correct the hazard or provide for remedial action such as evacuation.
When it is impossible to eliminate or adequately control a hazard through design selection or use of safety and warning devices, procedures and training shall be used to control the hazard.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is the least effective means of controlling hazards and should only be used in addition to other risk controls. PPE may be used if NFTA cannot feasibly design, substitute, or control a hazard to an acceptable level.
The focus of GBNRTC’s investments that address transit safety include:
Bus/LRRT preventative maintenance to maintain safe, reliable and convenient operations.
LRRT Capital Maintenance Rehabilitation for needed escalator rebuilds, system replacements and repairs.
Upgrading Customer Communications Systems to enhance rider notification and public information dissemination methods, including for those with disabilities.
Metro Bus Facility building repairs/upgrades to improve their energy efficiency, structural integrity, and the safety of NFTA-Metro employees.
Elevator controller replacement to replace the original elevator controllers in underground metro rail stations with modern equipment to enhance their performance and safety.
Rail car video surveillance upgrades and repairs to access and retrieve railcar video recordings.
Replacing bus and paratransit vehicles as they reach the end of their service life.
Replacing existing bus shelters.
The GBNRTC anticipates that the projects in the TIP, once implemented, will contribute toward achieving the established transit safety targets. The GBNRTC will continue to coordinate with the region’s transit provider(s) to improve the safety of travelers in the MPO planning area and maintain transit assets in a state of good repair.