The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has established requirements for performance management to ensure the most efficient investment of Federal transportation funds, support improved investment decision-making, increase accountability and transparency, and establish performance-based planning and programming.

As the region’s metropolitan planning organization, MTC – in coordination with the California Department of Transportation and regional transit agencies – is responsible for setting short-range performance targets to comply with federal law and support national transportation goals such as reducing traffic fatalities and improving highway infrastructure. FHWA established a total of 29 performance targets in the following federal goal areas:

• Safety
• Infrastructure Condition
• System Reliability
• Freight Movement and Economic Vitality
• Congestion Reduction
• Environmental Sustainability

MTC has already adopted five performance targets for Safety (learn more on Vital Signs). The rest of the targets will be discussed, debated and eventually adopted over the course of 2018.

To that end, MTC is currently seeking feedback from partners, stakeholders and the public on potential target options for three performance targets related to federal Congestion Reduction and Environmental Sustainability goals, specifically two- and four-year targets for the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program for year 2020 and year 2022. These performance measures include:

1. Annual hours of peak-hour excessive delay per capita by urbanized area (Traffic Congestion)
2. Percent of non-single occupant vehicle (SOV) travel by urbanized area (Commuting)
3. Total emissions reductions from CMAQ-funded projects by pollutant

For a technical, detailed look at the various targets under consideration, please read this memo. The thrust of the current debate is whether the targets should be aspirational or achievable, based on current trends or on desired trends. Staff is looking for feedback and guidance from stakeholders and the public by April 17, 2018, on the potential approaches outlined in the memo.

For more information on the Federal Performance Targets effort, visit the project "hub" on MTC's website. For detailed performance monitoring data and analysis of the required federal transportation performance measures, be sure to check the Vital Signs website as more targets are added over the course of 2018. 

Questions and comments about federal performance target-setting activities should be directed to David Vautin at dvautin@bayareametro.gov.