Skip to main content

FHWA proposes new performance measures to reduce highway congestion

The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) today released a proposed regulation outlining new performance measures to assess travel reliability, congestion, and emissions at a national level. It calls for an increased level of transparency and accountability in establishing and achieving targets for performance impacting commuters and truck drivers. The measures address the concerns outlined in the USDOT report Beyond Traffic, which examines the trends and choices facing
April 19, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The 324 US Department of Transportation’s 831 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) today released a proposed regulation outlining new performance measures to assess travel reliability, congestion, and emissions at a national level.  It calls for an increased level of transparency and accountability in establishing and achieving targets for performance impacting commuters and truck drivers.

The measures address the concerns outlined in the USDOT report Beyond Traffic, which examines the trends and choices facing America's transportation infrastructure over the next three decades, including a rapidly growing population, increasing freight volume, and the need to mitigate environmental impacts.  The proposed regulation also invites comment on the potential to establish a performance measure to address reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.  

The proposed new rule – National Performance Management Measures; Assessing Performance of the National Highway System, Freight Movement on the Interstate System, and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program – is a requirement under the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21).  Major provisions involve requirements for all states to evaluate and report more effectively and consistently on transportation system performance, including travel time reliability, delay hours, peak-hour congestion, freight movement, and on-road mobile source emissions.

FHWA’s National Performance Management Research Data Set, a relatively new data tool that collects actual travel times from vehicles, will be used by states to monitor system performance. All state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organisations would be required to use travel time data to establish performance targets and report on progress.

In addition, the reduction in criteria pollutants resulting from federally funded projects will also be estimated and reported.   FHWA is also seeking comment on whether and how to establish a greenhouse gas emissions measure.
UTC

Related Content

  • September 14, 2022
    OPINION: ITS must be included in EU Green Deal
    To reach the objectives of the European Green Deal, a classification system has been developed to identify environmentally-sustainable activities. However, Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom is worried that it might not have the intended effect – and ITS could lose out as a result…
  • January 10, 2014
    Will interoperability prevent progress?
    David Crawford examines the political and industrial background to the tolling technology debate. Saving the US State of California ‘millions of dollars’ in tolling infrastructure costs by encouraging new technologies is the professed aim of a legislative Bill, SB 242, which is currently moving through the State’s Senate (upper house) process. According to its sponsor, Republican State Senator Mark Wyland, permitting alternatives to the current FasTrak-branded radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based sys
  • March 16, 2016
    Parking provision dictates commuters’ modal choice
    Researchers from two American Universities have found the provision of parking spaces can encourage automobile use and increase traffic congestion. It is well understood that increased automobile use is linked to congestion, environmental degradation and negative health and safety impacts. Trials of smart parking technology has shown a reduction in circulating traffic (looking for parking) can ease congestion and that the cost of parking can influence commuters’ modal choice. Now, researchers at the univers
  • June 29, 2016
    Are truck bans the wrong move in the battle for air quality
    Low emission zones and heavy goods vehicles’ access to city centres may at first glance appear attractive but how effective are such controls? Jon Masters reviews emerging trends across Europe. Around 1,700 European cities have implemented low emission zones (LEZs) and in addition some have restricted city centre access for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). Even those that restrict HGV access, such as Paris and Rome, allow exemptions at certain times and for particular classes of vehicle. But with what effect?