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 4, 2018
    ITS instrumental in reducing Texan congestion
    ITS projects in the Houston area have seen costs crunched – and even a system failure has proved valuable in analysing performance. David Crawford reports on developments in the Lone Star state Savings by Texan public agencies are major factors in the recent ITS Texas awards, recognising beneficial initiatives in bridge strike prevention and traffic intersection control. In the first, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)’s Houston District, covering the state’s most populous city and its surround
  • May 18, 2015
    LCRS members leading the way in reducing emissions
    According to the FTA Logistics Carbon Review 2015, Logistics Carbon Reduction Scheme (LCRS) members are leading the way in making significant progress in reducing carbon emissions – compared to the rest of the logistics industry. Released at the Freight Transport Association’s annual Logistics Carbon Reduction Conference last week, the report incorporates the fifth annual results of the LCRS and reveals that the freight industry is contributing to national climate change reduction targets. Rachael
  • March 31, 2015
    Secretary Foxx sends six-year transportation bill to Congress
    Over the past year, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has visited more than 100 communities and heard one common story about crumbling infrastructure and dwindling resources to fix it with. Foxx has now sent to Congress his solution to this problem: a long-term transportation bill that provides funding growth and certainty so that state and local governments can get back in the business of building things again. The Grow America Act reflects President Obama’s vision for a six-year, US$478 billion
  • February 20, 2025
    Legal streetfight brews as Trump 'saves' New York from congestion charge
    MTA lawyers challenge USDoT move to shut down Manhattan toll scheme