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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • MDOT unveils I-94 truck parking information and management system
    September 5, 2014
    The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has launched its I-94 truck parking information and management system (TPIMS), a system that assesses truck parking availability along the I-94 corridor in southwest Michigan and delivers real-time parking availability information to truck drivers. The project is federally funded under the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Truck Parking Facilities Discretionary Grants Program.
  • High-res traffic data provides planners with the big picture
    November 5, 2015
    Road authorities have a lot to gain from high-resolution traffic data, argues Pravin Varaiya. Traffic engineers have traditionally been forced to operate with limited data regarding the performance of their arterials. Traffic studies are often commissioned once every three years, over a few days, to get an updated estimate of utilization.
  • Phoenix rises to the Smart City challenge
    December 10, 2015
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at the City of Phoenix where voters backed a $30bn plan to revamp its transportation network to cultivate a more connected community. According to a Land Use Institute study, half of all Americans and even more millennials (63%) would like to live in a place where they do not need to use a car very often. The City of Phoenix is putting in place plans to revamp its urban development and transportation policies to meet these changing quality of life perceptions.
  • IRD scoops Hawaii traffic data collection award
    July 1, 2013
    International Road Dynamics (IRD) is to supply the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) with its continuous traffic monitoring (CTM) data collection systems in a contract worth around US$5.4 million. CTM systems collect traffic volume, speed, vehicle classification, and weight data to support HDOT’s continuous traffic monitoring program on the state’s highways. The contract covers the supply, operation and maintenance of the CTM systems, together with data services that include the provision for real-