State departments of transportation (DOTs) are increasingly using performance measures to improve their planning, construction, and operations and in response to greater need for accountability. Some state DOTs have developed sophisticated agency-wide strategic performance management initiatives that are credited with helping meet challenges such as managing scarce financial resources more effectively, focusing staff on leadership priorities, and providing the transparency the general public demands today. Moreover, state DOT use of performance measures now extends to public transportation, an area where DOTs traditionally have had only a limited role. While use of performance measures in public transportation is well established, typical practices for public transportation performance measures are oriented to collection and reporting of data on operations performance via metrics for issues such as ridership and service cost effectiveness. In the context of the expanded reliance on performance management that is anticipated with reauthorization, there is a need for more effective use of public transportation performance measures to support state DOT investment decision-making. The purpose of this digest is to provide more information on performance measures and performance management approaches that can be used by state DOTs in relation to public transportation programs. (Author/publisher) This NCHRP Research Results Digest may be accessed by Internet users at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rrd_361.pdf
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