Environmental Performance Measures for State Departments of Transportation (2015)

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4C H A P T E R 1 1.1 Transportation, Environment, Performance Management, and MAP-21 Transportation supports ease of movement, access, and economic health for the businesses and communities it serves; but building and operating transportation systems also have indis- putable impacts on the air, the water, and the natural ecosystems that constitute the biophysical environment, which sustains lives and supports livelihoods across the United States. Over the last decade and longer, performance management has emerged as a mainstream business practice widely used among state departments of transportation (DOTs), in which performance measures and targets are lynch pins that link agencywide organizational strategic goals—like safety, access, mobility, or economic prosperity—with decisions about how to make best use of staff resources and funding to influence desired outcomes (1). Beginning in 2016, state DOTs and their partners at Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will undertake a congressionally mandated initiative required by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (or MAP-21) to require common national-level measures of performance for safety, infrastructure condition, and system performance, featuring standardized measures across states, consistent target setting practices, and regular performance reporting. While state DOTs are increasingly harmonized in their approaches to performance measure- ment for areas like infrastructure preservation, safety, and congestion, their strategies for measur- ing environmental performance could fairly be described as a scattered assortment of hundreds of measures with each state left to reinvent its own wheel. No guidance existed for practitioners, prior to this report, on which measures might be most useful, or how to use them. By establishing and demonstrating the practicality of a suite of core environmental measures, this report’s purpose is ultimately to kick-start a nationwide conversation among transportation practitioners and their stakeholders about the kind of environmental performance measures that might complement the national-level transportation measures now emerging in other areas. 1.2 Report Framework This report is based on the findings of National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 25-39. It suggests a suite of core environmental performance measures designed to help state DOTs better understand and communicate the impacts of transportation on the bio- physical environment and ultimately to make more informed business decisions that build stronger, more efficient linkages between transportation and the environment and provide greater account- ability for their impacts on the environment. Introduction

Introduction 5 Each of the report’s suggested measures has been tested with available data gathered from state DOTs. The proof of concept testing shows that several of the proposed measures are broadly ready to implement, while two (for stormwater and for wildlife and ecosystems) will require capacity building, but offer great potential. The report includes the following: • Suggested Focus Areas and Measures. Suggestions on a core set of environmental performance measures built around common environmental focus areas that are relevant to all or many states (Chapter 2 and Chapter 3); • Proof of Concept Demonstrations. Testing each measure, based on real-world data provided by a group of 27 volunteer state DOTs, to gauge its validity, practicality, and value (Chapter 4); • Advice on Using and Reporting Environmental Performance Measures. Almost as important as the measures themselves is the report’s identification of compelling and easy-to-implement approaches for using and reporting performance results that encourage their rapid adoption (Chapter 5 and Chapter 6); • Measure Methodology Guidelines for Core Measures. Detailed guidance for state DOTs that describes the data sources and methods for calculating each of the measures (Chapter 7); and • Conclusions. Including suggestions for future research (Chapter 8). Overall, this report proposes a succinct set of road-tested and broadly applicable environmen- tal measures suitable for comparative performance analysis among state DOTs that takes the field beyond the current state of the practice. Its intended audience is state DOTs that are seeking to develop better environmental performance measurement programs and policy makers interested in strengthening their use of performance measures. 1.3 A Word of Caution The measures suggested in this report should be considered neither perfect nor permanent. As in other areas where state DOTs are attempting to measure their performance, the search for the ideal measure is best characterized as a continual journey whose path is regularly redirected by shifts in industry practices, technology, or politics, among many other factors. Nonetheless, the measures proposed here should be considered a useful map for the path ahead in developing more robust state DOT environmental performance measures. Chapter 8 contains some directions for future research.