Improving the Resilience of Transit Systems Threatened by Natural Disasters, Volume 2: Research Overview (2017)

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TCRP A-41: Final Research Report 43 Incorporating Resilience into APTA Standards and Guidance The study team worked with APTA throughout the project to identify ways to integrate the guide into APTA standards and guidance documents, to ensure breadth, depth and longevity for resilience implementation in transit systems throughout the United States and Canada. APTA agreed with the premise that resilience is most effective when integrated into everyday operations and asset management, and into everyday thinking about long-range systems and capital planning, among other agency domains. Therefore APTA agreed to foster an approach that would, over time, incorporate resilience into standards and guidelines across the full gamut of the APTA practice. The study team developed a reference sheet on resilience lenses that APTA has agreed to provide to all working groups as they begin to update standards and guidance. The reference sheet includes suggested strategies to examine practices through resilience lenses, along with examples of agencies who have taken such approaches. Key APTA staff included Art Guzzetti, Jeff Hiott, and Rich Weaver (the APTA liaison to the A-41 panel and project), with Mark Teschauer and Zachary Smith offering support for specific guidelines. Summary Chronology of Study Team Interaction with APTA From March 2015 through February 2017 members of the A-41 TCRP project team held 12 meetings or conference calls with APTA staff and committee members to pursue the development and/or integration of resilience as a standard or part of a guideline through the APTA standards process. APTA is recognized as the facilitator and custodian of standards for the public transportation industry in the United States. In the A-41 team’s initial approach to APTA, the purpose and intent of the A-41 project was explained and APTA’s interest in collaborating in the standards development process was solicited. From this initial discussion specific APTA staff under whose purview a resilience standard development project would be addressed met with A-41 project team members to explain the APTA process and to begin mapping a strategy that would allow the APTA standards development process to give consideration to the A-41 team’s request. In May, 2016 the A-41 project team met with APTA staff to further collaborative strategies that would enable the project team to include in its study recommendations that APTA could use to guide the work of its standards committee. The outcome of that meeting was a request from the APTA staff that the A-41 project team review all of APTA’s current standards and guidelines and develop a list of candidates that might be appropriate to amend with a discussion of resilience. The study team provided APTA with an inventory of 86 standards and guidelines that could potentially benefit from a resilience perspective. That inventory, including the recommended date for review is included in the database under the APTA heading. Further discussions with APTA staff and members in the latter part of 2016 resulted in the identification of three possible APTA guidelines that were currently being or would soon be updated by their respective APTA standards committees. These guidelines included:  The Recommended Practice Guidelines for Climate Action Planning  Recommended Practice on Transit Sustainability Guidelines; and,  Recommended Practice on Transit Universal Design Guidelines. Following this discussion, the A-41 team provided the APTA staff a strategy memo outlining how resilience might be incorporated into these guidelines, and subsequently, for reasons of timeliness, it was

TCRP A-41: Final Research Report 44 recommended that the A-41 team first focus on the Recommended Practice on Transit Universal Design Guidelines. In November 2016 the APTA staff asked the A-41 project team to review the Universal Design Guidelines and make further recommendations on where and how resilience could be amended into the Guidelines. The A-41 team identified places where resilience could supplement the Guidelines, but recommended that other guidelines and standards likely have much greater potential for incorporating resilience principles and practices. In a January 27th, 2017 conference call, APTA staff stated that APTA is not and will not be working on a specific resilience standard, but is willing to propose guidance to appropriate policy committees, as well as its standards oversight and sustainability committees for developing language that references resilience into various standards and guidelines that will be reviewed and revised in the future. The A-41 team provided the APTA staff with a draft Suggested Worksheet on Resilience Lenses for APTA Working Groups. APTA staff provided comments on the worksheet, and upon revision, APTA agreed to present the worksheet to working groups as they begin to revise standards and guidelines. APTA agreed to narrow and prioritize the potential inventory of standards and guidelines from the 84 identified by the study team based on timing for review and highest relevance for resilience implementation, and agreed to provide this tailored list to the study team. APTA also agreed to provide an organizational chart of the working groups and relevant standard, to assist the study team and others in understanding the process. The proposed worksheet for working groups is provided as Exhibit A, beginning on the next page. The text in the worksheet has been modified slightly from the initial drafts provided to APTA. The study team intends to work with APTA beyond completion of the project to participate in conference presentations, committees, and other venues as feasible to support and monitor the application of the Resilience Lens worksheet and implementation of the Guide into APTA standards and guidelines.

TCRP A-41: Final Research Report 45 Exhibit A: Resilience Lens Suggested Worksheet for APTA Working Groups What is resilience? The National Research Council defines resilience as the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events. Transit agencies are implementing resilience practices through many different disciplines and frameworks, such as emergency preparedness, sustainability, and asset management. Like sustainability and asset management, resilience also cuts across functions. From whatever framework transit agencies are recognizing the need to be resilient in the face of virtually any natural event- and FTA agrees. What does resilience have to do with standards? Many transit agencies have found that incremental or step-wise approaches to enhancing resilience across all departments have been more effective than the creation of new initiatives or departments. Building resilience awareness into the full spectrum of APTA standards and guidelines will help perpetuate system readiness and recovery from disasters. Why is this being asked of working groups? Looking at standards and guidelines that are under review while asking the question “Can we revise this in a way that enhances resilience” will likely yield ideas about how to leverage and modify standards and guidelines to also meet resilience goals. This will help transit agencies become more accustomed to incorporating resilience practices into everyday actions as well as long-term planning, preserving money, assets and the ability to provide services in the long run. How: 1. Ask the questions below when reviewing the standards and guidelines for operations, asset management, capital planning, and other transit agency initiatives (see graphic). Review Table [7] for examples from transit agencies. You may also wish to review TCRP A-41, Improving the Resilience of Transit Systems Threatened by Natural Disasters, in particular the tools pertaining to strategies and transit agency self-assessment, for more context and guidance. 2. Consider including one or more of the questions on this page at the bottom of every working group agenda. 3. Appoint a working group member as the “resilience champion” responsible for consistently asking the questions below or questions that are tailored to the standard or guideline circumstances. (The champion may also represent another cross-cutting practice such as asset management or sustainability, if desired.) This individual is not charged with answering the questions, only to consistently ask working group members whether there are simple ways to adjust the guidelines or standards so they contribute to improved transit agency resilience. 4. Periodically ask the “resilience champion” what he or she observes about the impact of the question(s) on how the working group is acting to modify the standard or guideline to incorporate resilience. Example Resilience Lens Questions 1. As currently written, does this standard or guideline help or hurt an agency in its ability to withstand weather-related hazards? 2. What aspects or sections of the standard or guideline could be modified to refer to weather preparedness (short term/ long term)? 3. How will the revised standard or guideline help transit agencies protect their assets, employees, and customers from weather-related hazards (short term and/or long term)? 4. How will the revised standard or guideline help transit agencies adapt more quickly to weather- related hazards and recover service more quickly and safely?

Table 7: E Overarc Practi Safety Asset Managem Sustainab Doma Policy a Administr System Planning Project xamples of hing ce Safe alert impa ent Risk clima Life- chan ility Seek redu alter Enga in nd ation Supp “inco resil Lead regio Plan look chan Faci Transit Age Sample R ty inspectors and report “a cts analysis exp te impacts cycle plannin ge co-benefits, ndancy for nate power ge regional Sample R ort enthusias nvenient trut ience, operat / support age nal resilience rerouting for for patterns f ges or interv litate life-cycl ncy Resilien esilience Le and O&M pe nomalies” & licitly include g addresses support self- critical syst partners esilience Le m for chang hs” about saf ions. ncy participa efforts. emergency c or needed lo entions for > e & risk-base 46 ce Lenses ns rsonnel weather s changing climate sufficiency, ems, e.g., ns e; reward ety, tion in onditions, ng-term resilience. d planning T Syste Exampl STA (Swede MARTA, SE LA Metro, M LA Metro MARTA gar NJ TRANSI micro-grid HART, KCA stormwater Syste Exampl MARTA BART, HAR Nashville MT MUNI, LA M HART BRT rerouting & passenger a virtually all s reroute as necessary BART, LA M CRP A-41: Fi m e(s) Th n), PTA UNI age, T TA efforts m e(s) T T, A, etro lerts; ystems etro nal Research R is Guideline Standard his Guidelin or Standard eport or e

TCRP A-41: Final Research Report 47 Domain Sample Resilience Lens System Example(s) This Guideline or Standard Development through criteria, awards. Avoid minimum standards/ value engineering that “design out” resilience. (working on it); SEPTA, SFMTA, NJ TRANSIT Capital Programming “Extra credit” for resilience in prioritization rankings; Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) factors in climate risk. SEPTA; NJ TRANSIT, FTA- developed tools Plan ahead for infrastructure replacement – siting, elevation. Maintenance & Operations Promote value of front-line “first alert” and “eyes and ears” awareness and reporting of anomalies, early signs of weather-related problems, and patterns. STA (Sweden), NJ TRANSIT, SEPTA, SFMTA, MBTA & Maryland MTA (proactive O&M strategies for event preparedness, response); MARTA (culture) Include O&M reps in capital programming, project development & system planning for additional resilience and operations perspective: e.g., elevate critical power supplies to avoid flooding, white roofs on buses reflect heat. Also see SOPs. Emergency Preparedness For response and recovery and in After Action Reports (AARs), look for root causes of failures and seek long-term solutions: relocate a facility to reduce hazards? Build redundant control centers? Move vehicle fleets? What needs to change? Participate in project planning, programming to voice risk perspective, value in redundancy for critical systems. NJ TRANSIT, SEPTA, Honolulu (DTS), NORTA, Nashville MTA Supporting Processes Sample Resilience Lens System Example(s) This Guideline or Standard Risk Management Analyze, communicate value of mitigation/ avoidance of climate risk impacts -- insurance, self-payouts. Environmental Management Promote sustainable AND resilient aspects of projects and operations– e.g., stormwater management, alternate power. KCATA, LA Metro, MARTA, NJTRANSIT Communication Ensure contingencies, redundancies and SOPs are available and tested – internal, interagency and with public – for cases of no power, no internet, no phones and no satellite. NJ TRANSIT Standard Operating Procedures- Promote proactive procedures to reduce risk: e.g., trim trees for catenary wires (wind); STA (Sweden), NJ TRANSIT, SEPTA, SFMTA, MBTA &

TCRP A-41: Final Research Report 48 Supporting Processes Sample Resilience Lens System Example(s) This Guideline or Standard O&M clear drains and culverts (floods); issue slow orders for areas with potential high heat buckling and retrofit “repeat offender” areas with flexible joints; notify public and pull buses out of service earlier for heavy snow or ice to avoid stuck buses, engine damage and longer recovery. Maryland MTA (proactive O&M strategies for event preparedness, response); MARTA (culture) Standard Operating Procedures- Emergency Operations In joint exercises across disciplines and agencies, promote forward-looking climate risk scenarios with significant transit role and agency participation. DTS (Honolulu), NJ TRANSIT, UTA, NORTA (emergency preparedness focus to resilience) Promote COOP, NIMS and interdependency partner practices and mindsets within agency. Procurement Processes Ensure that product specs and warranties support life-cycle planning, and that desired resilience aspects are included. LA Metro Personnel Development Support COOP planning through information and training. Support retention, training and/or hiring initiatives to foster agency-wide resilience. NJ TRANSIT