Performance indicators for the road sector
Seeing the trend for public accountability of road administrations and noting the many reform efforts undertaken in transport sectors around the world, the OECD established a Scientific Expert Group on Performance Indicators for the Road Sector in 1996 to provide its member countries a framework for assessing road administrations' performance. The results of the Expert Group's work is presented in this paper.Fifteen indispensable, forty primary, and thirty-five secondary indicators are proposed to portray the road sector from different perspectives. They are designed to be changed in response to human needs and technological development and supplemented by country specific indicators. In keeping with this approach and in support of one of the maxims of the Expert Group that 'useful performance indicators are those which are used', an application in the form of a Field Test is now in progress by an OECD task force.The Performance Indicators proposed are grounded in a mental model adopted by the Expert Group. This model is management by results model, and is useful as a theoretical tool in the many highly fluid contexts in which restructuring is moving forward. In the model, the products and services are judged by standards or criteria; outcomes – derivatives of products and services through user interface – are judged relative to objectives and user satisfaction. The achievement of objectives, however, is not proposed as the only or even primary basis of evaluation. The situation is more abstract and complex. Therefore, the various uses of Performance Indicators – including the opportunities to assist road administrations in becoming learning organizations – are given much emphasis in the paper. The views and conclusions in the paper are those of the author and should not be attributed to the World Bank or its affiliated organizations.
STRATEGIES FOR THE EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION PLANS-A REIVEW
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM EVALUATION CAN NOT SOLVE PROBLEMS WITHOUT A SERIES OF COMPREHENSIVE, ON GOING RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION ACTIVITIES. RESEARCH IS REPORTED WHICH ATTEMPTS TO SHOW THAT CONCEPTS OF SYSTEMS ANALYSIS CAN LEAD TO SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSPORTATIONS PLAN EVALUATION. IT IS SHOWN HOW THESE POSITIVE CHANGES CAN BE BROUGHT ABOUT THROUGH COORDINATED EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY ALL OF THE MAJOR CONSEQUENCES OF SYSTEM MODIFICATIONS, AND THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGIES FOR PRESENTING THIS INFORMATION TO THOSE PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THE DECISIONS. A CASE STUDY IS PRESENTED OF AN URBAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PROGRAM CARRIED ON UNDER THE AEGIS OF AN OFFICIAL COMPREHENSIVE AREA WIDE AGENCY. THE BACK- GOUND INFORMATION PRESENTED FOR THE URBAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING INCLUDES A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF: (1) THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH THE PLANNING ORGANIZATION MUST OPERATE, (2) THE BASIC CONCEPTS UNDERLYING PLANNING AGENCY APPROACH TO ITS WORK, (3) THE INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE PLANNING AGENCY ITSELF, AND (4) THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE PLANNING AGENCY THROUGH OTHER GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES WITHIN ITS AREA OF OPERATIONS. THE REGIONAL PLANNING CONCEPT EMPLOYED IN SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN AND THE CONDUCT OF A MAJOR METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION STUDY WAS IN THE FRAMEWORK OF SUCH PLANNING. THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES CAN BE FULLY MET IF THE COMMISSION CAN SIGNIFICANTLY INFLUENCE THE LOCATION, IN TIME AND SPACE, OF THREE MAJOR ELEMENTS OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE MAJOR TRANSPORTATION ROUTES, THE LOCATION OF THE MAJOR PARK AND OPEN-SPACE RESERVATION, INCLUDING THE MAJOR DRAINAGEWAYS, AND THE LOCATION AND SERVICE AREAS OF THE PUBLIC SANITATION SEWERAGE FACILITIES. SECTION 204 OF THE DEMONSTRATION CITIES AND METROPOLITAN DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1966 CAN MATERIALLY ASSIST IN NOT ONLY ACHIEVING IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLANS, BUT IN THE COORDINATION OF SUCH PLANS AND EFFORTS TO PARK AND OPEN-SPACE LANDS, SEWERAGE AND WATER SUPPLY FACILITIES, COMMUNITY FACILITIES SUCH AS HOSPITALS AND LIBRARIES, AND WITH OTHER TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES SUCH AS AIRPORTS AND MASS TRANSIT LINES.
Evaluation of Alternative Transportation Proposals: The Northeast Corridor
Abstract The measurement and evaluation of the impacts, or indirect consequences, of alternative transportation investments in the Northeast Corridor are a subsystem of a total study. This paper describes the role of the impact modelling effort within the context of the total study and explains the strategy of, first, estimating the demographic, economic and land use consequences, and then the process whereby these forecasts are evaluated. The role of the decision-makers in this system is viewed as that of choosing between feasible, preferred (in an economic sense) transportation systems, given the estimated costs and benefits in a total (or general equilibrium) framework. The criteria established for the various phases of the effort, together with the limitations of the approach used, are also discussed.