An important gap that has been identified in research on asset management has been identifying how agencies should go about setting performance standards for performance measures used in highway investment decision making, and what performance measures are best in making investment decisions for roadway assets. The objectives of this research are to provide guidance on the:
- Relative effectiveness of various performance measurement systems for transportation asset management decision making
- Impacts of setting alternative standards on system productivity both in highway and multimodal systems.
Better measures and improved targets can increase customer satisfaction and result in cost savings for the transportation agency.
Benefits to decision makers of providing information on such issues include the answers to the following questions:
- What are appropriate performance targets in each performance category?
- How would system benefits change if the performance targets were reduced slightly? What would be the associated cost reductions?
- How are these changes likely to affect customer satisfaction?
- What matrix of targets (for the different performance categories) is likely to result in increased customer satisfaction with relatively changes in costs?
- What are the risks of setting performance standards based on historical practice without any cogent analysis?
This research addresses questions such as these related to performance targets, that, when answered, can improve the cost effectiveness of investments in highway and other modal systems and increase user satisfaction.