Measuring System Performance: Key to Establishing Operations as a Core Agency Mission

Monitoring transportation system performance, especially the operations of the system, has become an important task for transportation agencies. The importance of monitoring system performance as a strategy for enhancing the operations function of transportation agencies is examined. The reasons for system monitoring are described, with special focus on the importance of system information for customer satisfaction. Examples are provided of state department of transportation and metropolitan planning organization use of performance measures to guide decisions on operations-oriented strategies. It is concluded that by collecting data on system operations and reporting them to decision makers, the importance of system performance compared with other concerns could be increased significantly. Simply defining such measures will not ensure that the institutional willingness exists to emphasize system management and operations as solution strategies. However, the measures can provide important ammunition for those supporting these concepts, and because of public interest in improving traffic flow conditions, as indicated by surveys, they could act as catalysts for developing a supportive public constituency.