MOVING FORWARD
PERFORMANCE MEASURES
DRAFT
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Federal regulations require HATS to utilize Performance Based Planning and Programming, as outlined in FHWA guidance. The Vision, Goals, and Actions discussed earlier in the plan are part of that PBPP approach, as are the performance measures we use to keep track of our progress in achieving that vision and meeting those goals.
As the federally-designated MPO for the region, HATS primary focus are the federal performance measures outlined in 23 CFR Part 490. HATS also works with SRTA to fulfill transit performance measurement requirements outlined in 49 CFR Part 625. In addition to these federal performance measures, HATS has identified additional metrics related to each RTP Goal that will be tracked on an annual basis to provide the public and our region’s decision makers information on where we’ve been successful and where we’ve fallen short of achieving our vision and meeting our goals. These metrics, along with the federal performance measures, will then inform future updates to the RTP and additional regional transportation planning efforts.
In December 2024, HATS adopted the 2021-2025 PennDOT performance targets for safety improvement, which calls for a 2 percent annual reduction in fatal and major injury crashes based on five-year running average crash rates. With this adoption, HATS agrees to support the targets by working with PennDOT to plan and program projects that contribute to meeting or making significant progress toward the established targets, as shown in Table 1.
PennDOT and HATS will coordinate annually in tracking this performance measure and ensure the regional TIP, the STIP, and RTP are developed and managed to support progress toward the achievement of these targets. In addition, coordination will continue on an ongoing basis during the development of corridor safety studies and implementation projects described in the plan.
Table 1 - PM-1 Performance Measure Targets
HATS PROGRESS:
As discussed in the Safety Chapter, while the fatalities are showing a long-term downward trend, serious injury crashes, VRU fatalities, and VRU serious injuries are increasing. While HATS has not established its own targets for these performance measures, actions have been taken to address these increases and continue the downward trend of fatalities. The HATS Regional Safety Action Plan, which forms the basis of the Safety Chapter, was developed specifically to address fatal, serious injury, and VRU crashes. The corridors identified in the Action Plan (as well as other supporting data) is used in the Project Pipeline scoring, providing a direct link from performance measure to need evaluation to project selection and helping achieve the statewide targets.
PM-2 PAVEMENT & BRIDGE CONDITION —
The FHWA final rule for the National Performance Management Measures; Assessing Pavement Condition for the National Highway Performance Program and Bridge was published in the Federal Register (82 FR 5886) on January 18, 2017 and became effective on February 17, 2017.
The final rule established performance measures for all State DOTs to use to use to carry out the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP) and to assess the condition of the following: Pavements on the National Highway System (NHS) (excluding the Interstate System), bridges carrying the NHS which includes on- and off-ramps connected to the NHS, and pavements on the Interstate System.
The NHPP ensures that investments of Federal-aid funds in highway construction are directed to support progress toward the achievement of performance targets established in a State's transportation asset management plan (TAMP) for the NHS.
The pavement and bridge performance measures include:
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% of Interstate pavements in Good condition;
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% of Interstate pavements in Poor condition;
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% of non-Interstate NHS pavements in Good condition;
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% of non-Interstate NHS pavements in Poor condition;
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% of NHS bridges by deck area classified in Good condition;
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% of NHS bridges by deck area classified in Poor condition.
Table 2 - PM-2 Performance Measure Targets
In June 2023, HATS adopted the 2021-2025 PennDOT performance targets for pavement and bridge conditions, which aims to maintain the system in a state of good repair. With this adoption, HATS agrees to support the targets by working with PennDOT to plan and program projects that contribute to meeting or making significant progress toward the established statewide targets shown in Table 2.
As with the safety measures, PennDOT and HATS will coordinate annually in tracking this performance measure and ensure the regional TIP, the STIP, and the RTP are developed and managed to support progress toward achievement of these targets.
HATS PROGRESS:
As illustrated in the PennDOT’s Mid Performance Progress Report, PennDOT is meeting its 2-year targets related to pavement condition and poor condition NHS bridges, while falling just short of the 2-year target for good condition NHS bridges. Examining the latest PennDOT Pavement Performance Report shows the HATS region is meeting its established regional targets. However, the PennDOT Bridge Performance Report shows the HATS region exceeding its 2023 regional target for poor condition NHS bridges. It should be noted that the 13.78% poor condition interstate deck area is comprised of only 3 total bridges, which make up just 1.65% of the region’s interstate bridge count. This illustrates the impact of the John Harris I-83 “South Bridge”, which was classified as poor condition in 2023, has on our region’s performance measures, which coincides with the region falling short of the regional target.
To address this, numerous bridge projects in the HATS region are already programmed and moving forward, which will help significantly lower the percentage of poor condition NHS bridges. These include the aforementioned South Bridge, but also Maclay Street Bridge (MPMS 74521) , Cameron Street over Asylum Run (MPMS 87454), US 11 over Letort Spring (MPMS 117479) and State Road over Fishing Creek (MPMS 87462). Collectively, this represents approximately 2/3 of the region’s poor condition NHS bridge deck area (over 405,000 sf out of approximately 606,000 sf). Beyond that, HATS will continue working with PennDOT to identify bridge candidates consistent with the lowest life cycle cost approach discussed in the Asset Management chapter and will continue including asset condition and change in condition as part of the Project Pipeline evaluation criteria.
PM-3 SYSTEM PERFORMANCE, FREIGHT, CMAQ —
For the three reliability measures, PennDOT has set statewide targets and MPO baseline reliability measures have been provided for informational purposes.
The mobile source emission reduction measures are produced for each MPO that is in a non-attainment or maintenance area in accordance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. HATS is a non-attainment area for PM 2.5 and has targets set for this.
Table 3 - PM-3 Performance Measure Targets
The FHWA final rule for the 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 was published in the Federal Register (82 FR 5970) on January 18, 2017 and became effective on May 20, 2017.
The measures in this final rule will be used by State DOTs and MPOs to assess the performance of the Interstate and non-Interstate National Highway System (NHS) for the purpose of carrying out the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP); to assess freight movement on the Interstate System; and to asses traffic congestion and on-road mobile source emissions for the purpose of carrying out the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program.
These performance measures include:
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Percent of Person-miles Traveled on the Interstate System that are Reliable;
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Percent of Person-miles Traveled on the Non-Interstate NHS that are Reliable;
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Interstate System Truck Travel Time Reliability Index;
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Annual Hours of Peak-Hour Excessive Delay (PHED) per Capita;
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Percent Non-Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV) Travel;
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On-Road Mobile Source Emissions Reduction for CMAQ-funded Projects.
In June 2023, HATS adopted the 2021-2025 state performance targets. With this adoption, HATS agrees to work with PennDOT to plan and program projects that contribute to meeting or making significant progress toward the established targets shown in Table 3.
As with the other defined measures, PennDOT and HATS will coordinate regularly in tracking this performance measure and ensure the regional TIP, the STIP, and the RTP are developed and managed to support progress toward achievement of these targets.
HATS PROGRESS:
As illustrated in the PennDOT’s Mid Performance Progress Report, PennDOT is largely meeting its 2-year targets for reliability and congestion management/air quality. Further, the HATS region is meeting its regional target for every PM-3 metric. To ensure this continues, HATS will continue supporting both SRTA and SRTP through its regional CMAQ allocation, while also utilizing the Project Pipeline and processes described in the Project Selection chapter to identify additional projects for CMAQ funding and programming. Beyond that, upcoming updates to the Regional Freight Plan and the Congestion Management Plan will identify additional strategies and projects to continue this progress.
TRANSIT PERFORMANCE MEASURES
SAFETY —
Based on a 2018 Federal Transit Administration final rule, MPOs are required to establish Transit Safety performance targets. In 2024, the Susquehanna Regional Transit Authority (SRTA) updated their Public Transit Agency Safety Plan that establishes targets for fatalities, injuries, safety events, and system reliability, as shown in Table 4.
At its June 25, 2021 meeting, HATS passed a resolution adopting the performance targets of the SRTA Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan and agreeing to plan and program projects that contribute to meeting the safety targets. Unless approved differently in the future, the HATS MPO safety targets will coincide with whatever is in the most current SRTA Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan, a commitment that held through their most recent update.
Table 4 - Transit Safety Performance Measure Targets
ASSET MANAGEMENT —
Based on a 2016 Federal Transit Administration final rule on planning, MPOs are required to cooperatively work with state DOTs and transit providers to establish Transit Asset Management (TAM) performance targets and incorporate those targets into long-range plan updates.
As a Tier One transit provider, SRTA is required to develop a TAM Plan, consistent with federal regulations and guidance. SRTA adopted the 2023-2026 TAM Plan in 2022, which included performance measures and targets based on the current number of assets and equipment extending beyond their useful life benchmark (ULB), as shown in Table 5.
Table 5 - Transit Asset Management Performance Measure Targets
At its June 24, 2022 meeting, HATS passed a resolution adopting the performance targets of the SRTA 2023-2026 TAM Plan and agreeing to plan and program projects that contribute to meeting the TAM targets. Unless approved differently in the future, the HATS MPO TAM targets will coincide with whatever is included in the most recent SRTA TAM Plan.
TRACKING OTHER METRICS
Aside from the federal performance measures discussed above, HATS will track additional metrics to gauge progress toward achieving the vision set forth in the RTP. These additional metrics are discussed below under each RTP goal. An annual progress report on these metrics, as well as the federal performance measures, will be produced and uploaded to RTP website, informing transportation-related decision making in the region and guiding future RTP updates.
ADDITIONAL METRICS FOR "ALL USERS AND MODES" —
The only federal performance measures related to the “all modes and users” goal are the transit safety and asset management measures. Aside from those, HATS will track the active use of our alternate modes and their related facilities.
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SusqueCycle Annual Ridership
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Amtrak Annual Ridership
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SRTA Capital Region Fixed Service Annual Ridership
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Linear feet construction/improvements to Regional Backbone
ADDITIONAL METRICS FOR "SAFETY" —
In addition to the federal performance measures regarding fatalities, serious injuries, and vulnerable road user crashes, the HATS Safety Action Plan identifies impaired crashes and roadway departure crashes as emphasis areas. Tracking and ultimately reducing these crashes will go a long way toward achieving the safety goal of eliminating traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries.
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Annual Impaired Crashes
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Annual Roadway Departure Crashes
ADDITIONAL METRICS FOR "SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY" —
The condition of assets and operation of the network is well covered by federal performance measures, particularly PM-2 and PM-3. However, these measures only apply to NHS segments. To fully gauge the region’s progress to this goal, tracking the condition of other assets, even locally-owned, is necessary. Additional metrics will be developed as part of the CMP update.
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BPN 3 & 4 Poor Condition Bridge Count
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BPN 3 & 4 Poor Condition Bridge Deck Area
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Poor Condition Locally Owned, > 20’ Bridge Count
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Poor Condition Locally Owned, > 20’ Bridge Deck Area
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BPN 3 & 4 Poor Condition Roadway
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Locally Owned, Federal Aid Eligible Roadway
ADDITIONAL METRICS FOR "ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT" —
The federal performance measures related to the “economic and community development” goal are PM-3 measures related to commute mode and freight reliability. While these are important measures, HATS will also track more regionally-focused, non-transportation measures related to economic growth and land development. Like “System Functionality”, additional metrics will be developed as part of the CMP updated.
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Residential Building Permits Granted
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Regional Gross Domestic Product Growth
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Cost Burdened Households
ADDITIONAL METRICS FOR "SUSTAINABILITY & RESILIENCY" —
Federal performance measures for air quality are found in both PM-3 and within the Air Quality Conformity process. Aside from those, HATS will track additional measures related to air quality and the strategies identified in the Environmental Mitigation to gauge the effectiveness of those strategies, and progress toward the above state goal.
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Miles of Non-attaining Streams
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Deer-Related Crashes
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Days Violating National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone
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Days Violating National Ambient Air Quality Standards for PM2