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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies - Volume I: Research Report, and Volume II: Guide for Target Setting and Data Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14429.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies - Volume I: Research Report, and Volume II: Guide for Target Setting and Data Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14429.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies - Volume I: Research Report, and Volume II: Guide for Target Setting and Data Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14429.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies - Volume I: Research Report, and Volume II: Guide for Target Setting and Data Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14429.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies - Volume I: Research Report, and Volume II: Guide for Target Setting and Data Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14429.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies - Volume I: Research Report, and Volume II: Guide for Target Setting and Data Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14429.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies - Volume I: Research Report, and Volume II: Guide for Target Setting and Data Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14429.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2010 www.TRB.org N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E H I G H W A Y R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCHRP REPORT 666 Subscriber Categories Highways • Administration and Management • Data and Information Technology Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies Volume I: Research Report Volume II: Guide for Target-Setting and Data Management Cambridge Systematics, Inc. Chicago, IL W I T H Boston Strategies International, Inc. Boston, MA Gordon Proctor and Associates Dublin, OH Michael J. Markow Teaticket, MA Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM Systematic, well-designed research provides the most effective approach to the solution of many problems facing highway administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by highway departments individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation develops increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated program of cooperative research. In recognition of these needs, the highway administrators of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials initiated in 1962 an objective national highway research program employing modern scientific techniques. This program is supported on a continuing basis by funds from participating member states of the Association and it receives the full cooperation and support of the Federal Highway Administration, United States Department of Transportation. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies was requested by the Association to administer the research program because of the Board’s recognized objectivity and understanding of modern research practices. The Board is uniquely suited for this purpose as it maintains an extensive committee structure from which authorities on any highway transportation subject may be drawn; it possesses avenues of communications and cooperation with federal, state and local governmental agencies, universities, and industry; its relationship to the National Research Council is an insurance of objectivity; it maintains a full-time research correlation staff of specialists in highway transportation matters to bring the findings of research directly to those who are in a position to use them. The program is developed on the basis of research needs identified by chief administrators of the highway and transportation departments and by committees of AASHTO. Each year, specific areas of research needs to be included in the program are proposed to the National Research Council and the Board by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Research projects to fulfill these needs are defined by the Board, and qualified research agencies are selected from those that have submitted proposals. Administration and surveillance of research contracts are the responsibilities of the National Research Council and the Transportation Research Board. The needs for highway research are many, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program can make significant contributions to the solution of highway transportation problems of mutual concern to many responsible groups. The program, however, is intended to complement rather than to substitute for or duplicate other highway research programs. Published reports of the NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at: http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America NCHRP REPORT 666 Project 08-70 ISSN 0077-5614 ISBN 978-0-309-15500-7 Library of Congress Control Number 2010935343 © 2010 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, or Transit Development Corporation endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The members of the technical panel selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. The report was reviewed by the technical panel and accepted for publication according to procedures established and overseen by the Transportation Research Board and approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this report are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, or the program sponsors. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, and the sponsors of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of the report.

CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP REPORT 666 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs Andrew C. Lemer, Senior Program Officer Sheila A. Moore, Program Associate Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Maria Sabin Crawford, Assistant Editor NCHRP PROJECT 08-70 PANEL Field of Transportation Planning—Area of Forecasting Martin E. Kidner, Wyoming DOT, Cheyenne, WY (Chair) R. Gregg Albright, California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, Sacramento, CA Rabinder K. Bains, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC John W. Fuller, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Colleen A. Kissane, Connecticut DOT, Newington, CT Patrick Morin, Washington State DOT, Olympia, WA Jack R. Stickel, Alaska DOT and Public Facilities, Juneau, AK Valentin G. Vulov, Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, Atlanta, GA David Kuehn, FHWA Liaison Rolf R. Schmitt, FHWA Liaison Martine A. Micozzi, TRB Liaison Thomas Palmerlee, TRB Liaison C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S

NCHRP Report 666 describes methods that managers of state departments of transporta- tion (DOTs) and other agencies can use for setting performance targets to achieve multiple objectives and interact with multiple decision-makers and stakeholder groups, and how data management systems within a DOT can support performance-based decision-making. Transportation agencies at all levels of government are embracing performance measure- ment to improve agency efficiency and accountability. Setting performance targets, a cru- cial step in the management process, generally entails balancing among competing objec- tives and dealing with political implications. Unless the bases for setting those targets are sound and defensible and key decision makers and stakeholders concur, the effectiveness of performance-based management is likely to be compromised. This report presents a frame- work and specific guidance for target-setting and for ensuring that appropriate data are available to support performance management. The report draws on a range of private- and public-sector examples to explore issues of data management and stewardship as well as organizational factors likely to influence an agency’s performance measurement and man- agement experience. Supplementing the report, NCHRP Web-Only Document 154, available on the TRB website, presents case studies of organizations investigated in the research. The information will be useful to senior agency managers seeking to develop and improve their performance-management practices. DOTs and other transportation agencies are increasingly using performance measure- ment to guide their resource allocation decisions for operations, asset management, capital investment, planning, and policy development. There is extensive and growing literature on defining and applying performance measures, but little attention has been given to specific methods for setting performance targets. Setting targets within the context of a DOT gen- erally entails balancing among competing objectives and considering the perspectives of multiple stakeholder groups. Unless performance targets are set with sound and defensible bases, and with the concurrence of key decision makers and stakeholders, the effectiveness of performance measurement as a management tool to improve agency efficiency and accountability is almost certain to be compromised. Previous NCHRP-sponsored research has addressed limited aspects of performance mea- sures and target-setting, for example, for asset management or project delivery. This report is the product of NCHRP Project 08-70, undertaken to develop a more comprehensive set of methods for establishing performance targets to guide resource allocation decisions in all aspects of DOT management, from planning and policy development to project implemen- tation and operations. The research was designed to draw on a range of private- and public- sector examples to extract lessons that would be instructive and adaptable to transportation F O R E W O R D By Andrew C. Lemer Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

agencies. Because effective performance measurement relies on good data, the research was designed also to describe data management systems and institutional relationships that will support DOT use of performance-based resource allocation. The specific objectives of the research were to (1) describe a comprehensive framework and set of methods (a) to analyze opportunities to improve the multiple-objective perfor- mance of transportation systems within the context of broader societal goals and (b) to set specific performance targets to guide agency policies, plans, and programs; (2) detail the fac- tors that influence target-setting and the success of performance-based resource allocation systems and explain how agencies may successfully design, implement, and use such sys- tems; and (3) analyze the data and information needs, data acquisition and management systems, and institutional relationships required to support successful PBRA systems. Case studies of organizations that use performance-based resource allocation and other exam- ples illustrate methods for presenting performance information to decision makers and other stakeholders and decision-support systems that can provide this information. A team led by Cambridge Systematics conducted this research. The work started with a review of current private- and public-sector practices in using performance-based resource allocation to investigate the key elements of the performance-measurement and resource- allocation processes and the tools, data-management systems, and institutional relation- ships needed to support these elements. The research team next sought to describe factors likely to influence the setting of perfor- mance targets in transportation agencies. Agency scope and organization; agencies’ use of forecasting; availability, precision, and reliability of data within the agency; agencies’ expe- rience using benefit-cost analysis and other evaluation methodology; and stakeholders’ per- ceptions and expectations were considered. Data management systems and institutional relationships to support performance-based resource allocation were given particular atten- tion in the project work. The research results include specific guidance in two areas: perfor- mance target-setting as a factor affecting resource allocation and data management. Case- study reports of organizations investigated in the research are presented as well. These results are presented in this NCHRP report and the supplemental web-only document, NCHRP Web-Only Document 154, available on the TRB website. An extension of the research being developed as these publications were in preparation will identify how risk analysis may best be used by transportation agencies in performance- based resource allocation. The extension will provide details on specific analysis methods and applications and on information technology tools and data sharing options to support target-setting in performance-based resource allocation.

C O N T E N T S V O L U M E 1 Research Report V O L U M E 2 Guide for Target-Setting and Data Management

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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 666: Target Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies - Volume I: Research Report, and Volume II: Guide for Target-Setting and Data Management provides a framework and specific guidance for setting performance targets and for ensuring that appropriate data are available to support performance-based decision-making.

Volume III to this report was published separately in an electronic-only format as NCHRP Web-Only Document 154. Volume III includes case studies of organizations investigated in the research used to develop NCHRP Report 666.

NCHRP Report 706: Uses of Risk Management and Data Management to Support Target-Setting for Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies was released in 2011 and supplements NCHRP Report 666. NCHRP Report 706 describes how risk management and data management may be used by transportation agencies to support management target-setting for performance based resource allocation.

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