The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT's) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has proposed new performance measures to assess travel reliability, congestion and emissions at a national level. The proposed regulation calls for increased transparency and accountability in setting and achieving targets for performance impacting commuters and truck drivers.

“Commuters and truck drivers from every state and region will be able to learn valuable information about how transportation investments are performing in delivering reliable highway travel with minimal delays and less air pollution,” says U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “We are also taking a hard look at how to track progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.”

States may be required to report on travel time reliability, delays and peak-hour congestion. Image credit: Pixabay.The measures address the concerns outlined in DOT's Beyond Traffic report, which examines the trends and choices facing America's transportation infrastructure over the next three decades, including a rapidly growing population, increasing freight volumes 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 rule is a requirement under the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act. 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, would be used by states to monitor system performance. All state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations would be required to use travel time data to establish performance targets and report on progress.

Comments on the proposal are due on or before August 20, 2016.