Chapter 8 – Performance Measurement

Policymakers want to fund services and programs that work. Being able to measure and communicate the value achieved by investing in transit is a critical part of the funding process. Building on this theme, an important element of the Greater Minnesota Transit Investment Plan is evaluating Greater Minnesota’s transit systems. Included are the development of performance measures and standards to improve the level and quality of service and build support for strengthening local and regional transit systems.

Performance Measures and Standards

Performance measures support community and agency goals, and often include evaluation criteria. When discussing performance measures, a number of terms are used:

Metric: A quantifiable assessment of condition or performance.
Performance Measure: A metric that measures progress towards a goal, outcome or objective. This definition covers metrics used to make decisions or evaluate the effectiveness or adequacy of a policy, strategy or investment. A metric may be termed a performance measure without a target if MnDOT would evaluate and potentially change a course of action based on the metric’s trend or direction.
Target: A target is a specific performance level representing the achievement of a goal, outcome or objective.
Provider Performance Standards: These metrics were set through MnDOT’s Office of Transit in coordination with the local transit providers. These standards are categorized by different transit service. Transit systems need to use the targets to design and operate transit service. The Office of Transit uses the performance standards to evaluate each transit system in yearly application for funding.

Performance Measures

MnDOT uses performance measures and targets to guide its plans, projects and investments. The performance measures listed below were approved through MnDOT’s internal review process and will be adopted through the public planning process and through the formal public comment period.

In addition to MnDOT policy, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or FAST Act, requires performance-based planning. It requires statewide transportation planning processes to integrate, either directly or by reference, the goals, objectives, performance measures and targets identified at the national or statewide level, and measures and targets established by MPOs and the public transit providers. The FAST Act also requires states to consider performance measures and targets when developing policies, programs and investment priorities in the statewide transportation plan.

The GMTIP has four approved performance measures including (1) ridership, (2) fleet condition, (3) span of service and (4) on-time performance. Targets were identified for each of these performance measures. MnDOT will report progress towards these targets annually.

Measure #1: Ridership

Increasing public transit ridership is a goal in Minnesota Statutes § 174.24, subd 1a, the Olmstead Plan and Heading Home: Minnesota’s Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. To meet this goal, Greater Minnesota public transit must add more service hours and buses to serve 90 percent of transit demand by 2025. In 2014, MnDOT provided 12.1 million rides, approximately 87 percent of the 2015 ridership. Ridership is reported and tracked monthly by MnDOT and is analyzed and publically reported in the Annual Transit Report.

Measure #2: Fleet Condition

Public transit providers are mandated to set targets and report on progress and develop transit asset management plans and report on the measures. The fleet condition measure is defined as the percent of Greater Minnesota transit vehicles that are within their useful life based on their age and accumulated miles. Each transit system will report on the age and milage of transit vehicles annually. MnDOT will analyze the existing data and establish a baseline to measure the fleet against. The target is 90 percent of fleet within useful life, the minimum threshold is 80 percent. At the beginning of 2016, the number of vehicles past their useful life was 22 percent.

Measure #3: Span of Service

Minnesota Olmstead Plan

In response to a court directive, the State of Minnesota developed the Minnesota Olmstead Plan, which outlines how state agencies will support individuals with disabilities so they may live, learn, work and enjoy life in the most integrated setting of their choice. The transportation-related goals found in the Minnesota Olmstead Plan were developed by the state and approved by the federal court in June 2015. The goals are designed to remove barriers and improve transportation access to help individuals with disabilities become more independent and integrated into their communities. The span of service plan specifically addresses the core components of increasing access to transit service and connecting employment, housing, services and recreation in Greater Minnesota. The increased service levels will not only increase ridership but play an important role in fulfilling the goals identified in Minnesota’s Olmstead Plan.

Span of Service

The Span of Service performance measure is the percent of the state’s communities whose span of service meets the minimum guidelines. The information is collected using published transit system service schedules. The target is 90 percent by 2025. Currently, only 46 percent of rural and small urban communities meet the weekday span of service guidelines, 4 percent for Saturday service and only one community for Sunday service. For the seven urbanized systems, only Duluth currently has service meeting standards on weekdays and Sundays. Duluth, St. Cloud and Rochester meet the standards for Saturday service. The progress towards the span of service will be collected and reported annually.

Measure #4: Transit On-time Performance

Improved reliability is a core component of the Greater Minnesota Transit Investment Plan. Reliability is measured by on-time performance and is defined as the percent of transit vehicles that arrive at their pick-up site within the appropriate window of time. The performance pick-up window was established in the provider performance standards (see Appendix). The target is 90 percent of trips picked-up within the appropriate time window by 2025. Currently, there is no baseline measure, MnDOT will analyze the existing data and establish a baseline. This information will be collected and reported yearly.

Evaluation Framework

To assess the validity of the strategies identified, each was compared against the four adopted transit performance measures. As shown in Figure 8-1, each strategy was analyzed to assess whether it supports, degrades or is neutral towards efforts in achieving the four performance measures.

+ = Supports/helps achieve performance measure

N = Neutral - neither hurts nor helps performance measure

- = May degrade progress toward performance measure

Figure 8-1. Performance Measure Evaluation

Strategy Code	Span of Service	On-Time Reliability	Fleet Condition	Ridership
1.1 Implement transit span of service standards and guidelines for all systems	+	N	N	+
1.2 Improve reliability of rural service through schedule adherence	N	+	N	N
1.3 Increase frequency of urban routes	N	N	N	+
1.4 Expand coverage of transit services to under-served and unserved communities	N	N	N	+
1.5 Invest in regional connections and cross-county service where there is a high level of travel between population and employment-rich centers	N	N	N	+
1.6 Develop clear, comprehensive and accessible public information about transit services	N	N	N	+
1.7 Invest in customer amenities that improve the transit experience, such as new vehicles and vehicle enhancements, automatic vehicle location, electronic fare systems, waiting shelters and benches	N	N	N	+
1.8 Support bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure to improve accessibility	N	N	N	+
2.1 Encourage the transit systems to coordinate with social service agencies to develop transportation options for health and human service clients	N	N	N	+
2.2 Encourage coordination with Non-Emergency Medical Transportation providers to provide access to health services	N	N	N	+
2.3 Collaborate with, and between volunteer driver programs to highlight the need and value of volunteer drivers as vital components of Greater Minnesota transportation service	N	N	N	+
2.4 Partner with organizations to provide high-quality transportation service for veterans	N	N	N	+
2.5 Collaborate with state partners to address transit needs in Greater Minnesota	N	N	N	+
3.1 Support statewide and regional marketing campaigns to promote transit services in Greater Minnesota	N	N	N	+
3.2 Invest in supporting technology to engage transportation network companies that will play a role in how transportation services is delivered in Greater Minnesota (e.g. Transportation Network Companies, automatic vehicle location technology and Google Transit)	N	+	N	+
3.3 Expand the transit market to include a greater percentage of riders who have a choice between transit and autos for their trips, such as investing in transportation services that provide reliable options for commuters and rides for workers with non-traditional commute times	+	N	N	+
3.4 Develop new and enhanced partnerships with private providers to meet customer needs	N	N	N	+
4.1 Stress the importance of local partnerships in supporting transit service	N	N	N	+
4.2 Invest in high performing, efficient and effective transit service that meet performance standards	N	+	N	N
4.3 Use decision-support software to critically evaluate and assess transit systems in their applications for funding and annual review	N	N	N	N
5.1 Work with transit systems to develop strategies for “first-mile, last-mile” rider needs	N	N	N	+
5.2 Increase usage of the transit network in replacement for single-occupancy vehicles in supporting an environmentally sustainable future	N	N	N	+
5.3 Support infrastructure and communications that enable connections between travel modes	N	N	N	+
5.4 Encourage transit systems to actively plan for, and adapt to, changes in travel options such as car-share, ride-share and autonomous vehicles	N	+	+	N
6.1 Increase MnDOT investment in transit provider marketing and public outreach	N	N	N	+
6.2 Guide transit systems in developing appropriate, accessible and easy to understand information for their websites	N	N	N	+
6.3 Encourage transit systems to provide information across multiple platforms such as smart-phone travel apps, social media, print materials, etc.	N	+	N	+
6.4 Encourage in transit systems that use innovated approaches to public outreach and marketing	N	N	N	+
6.5 Encourage that transit systems conduct robust public outreach when undertaking fare changes, large capital projects and service planning, etc.	N	N	N	+
6.6 Ensure that transit systems are providing culturally specific material, as appropriate	N	N	N	+

Provider Performance Standards

Performance measures speak to how transit will help achieve overall state goals, but performance standards provide a way to track progress at the individual transit agency level. Performance standards cover operational metrics that help assess progress toward performance measures. The provider performance standards proposed in this plan are the result of research into state peer systems and discussions and surveys with transit system providers. See Appendix for a full chart of performance standards, and the Technical Memo: Peer Analysis Review.

Provider performance standards have different metrics for different service types including fixed route, route deviation, Dial a Ride, regional mobility, commuter bus, intercity bus feeder and vanpool. The 24 metrics were developed in collaboration with the Greater Minnesota Transit providers throughout the planning process. The metrics are grouped into the following categories:

Access: Facility access to high-quality public transportation (examples, service frequency, and service hours per capita)
Ensure safe access to transit: Provide multimodal amenities and safe waiting areas (example, bicycle parking at transit stops, continuous walking routes and crossings to stops)
Ridership: Increase network usage by linking people with goods, services and jobs (example, passengers per hour)
Reliability: Provide convenient and reliable service (example, on-time performance and advanced reservation time)
Safety: Maintain fleet to ensure passenger safety and state of good repair (example, road calls, accidents, and spare ratio)
Cost-effectiveness: Ensure services operate responsibly (example, cost per revenue hour, cost per ride and farebox recovery)

Implementation of Peformance Measures and Provider Performance Standards

Key steps in the process of incorporating the framework into MnDOT’s system include:

Evaluate current decision-making criteria in annual review of systems
Develop sampling plan and methodology to collect on-time performance for system
Refine the goals and objectives within the annual application for funding

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