Analysis of Anticipated Effect of TIP Toward Achieving Federal Performance Measure Targets

Performance-Based Planning and Programming

The most recent three federal transportation bills, MAP-21, FAST ACT, and now Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA), require incorporation of performance-based planning and programming into the development of Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Long-Range Regional Transportation Plans (LRTP) and Transportation Improvement Programs (TIP). 

The goals of the new performance management process are to make the most efficient use of federal transportation funds, refocus on national goals, increase accountability and transparency, and improve decision-making.

Federal performance measures have been established to track progress in achieving national goals, which include the following:

• Safety — To achieve a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads
• Infrastructure Condition — To maintain the highway infrastructure asset system in a state of good repair
• Congestion Reduction — To achieve a significant reduction in congestion on the National Highway System (NHS)
• System Reliability — To improve the efficiency of the surface transportation system
• Freight Movement and Economic Vitality — To improve the national freight network, strengthen the ability of rural communities to access national and international trade markets, and support regional economic development.
• Environmental Sustainability — To enhance the performance of the transportation system while protecting and enhancing the natural environment

The Greater Madison MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) has made significant progress in the transition to performance-based planning and programming. The MPO has tracked transportation system performance measures for many years and included its first official list of measures in its 2035 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) Update adopted in 2012.

The MPO also developed a list of congestion and reliability measures in its Congestion Management Process (CMP) adopted in 2011, and tracked those for which data was readily available. That CMP has now been replaced by an updated one with a scaled back list of measures that was included as part of the Connect Greater Madison: 2050 Regional Transportation Plan, adopted in May 2022.

The Connect Greater Madison Plan maintains the same core six goals from the previous RTP, which are consistent with the national goals above, and a revised set of performance measures tied to these goals. Based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses, the multi-modal set of recommended transportation facility and service investments in the Connect Greater Madison Plan were selected based on these goals and measures.

These performance measures will also be used to track progress in achieving the goals over time. See Appendix B: System Performance Report in the Connect Greater Madison: 2050 Regional Transportation Plan.

The MPO began publishing an annual Performance Measures report in 2016 for 2015 baseline data to gauge progress in achieving the RTP goals and fulfill federal performance management requirements. The 2019 Performance Measures Report incorporates the federal measures along with numerous other regional measures tied to RTP 2050 goals.

Due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MPO collected and reported required data for the federal performance measures, but did not produce a Performance Measures Report for 2020. The MPO transitioned to publishing an online Performance Measures Dashboard in 2023.

The MPO revised its set of project scoring criteria for the Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) – Urban program in 2023 (see Appendix A of the TIP) and for the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) in 2021 for use in evaluating and prioritizing projects for funding the MPO receives from those federal programs. Both sets of criteria rely heavily on quantitative scoring guidelines that are tied to RTP goals.

Federal Transportation Performance Measures

Setting Targets for Performance Measures

Under the federally required performance management process, targets must be set for each of the federal performance measures. States must then report to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) on progress toward achieving the targets on a schedule specific to each measure. At the state level, there are funding implications when progress is not being made on a particular measure.

State departments of transportation (DOTs) and transit agencies first set their performance measure targets in coordination with MPOs. For DOT targets, MPOs may choose to support the state targets or establish their own. For transit agency targets, MPOs may adopt the same targets or establish their own.

Given the limited amount of historical data for most of the measures, the impact of COVID-19 on travel, uncertainty about what trends the data may show moving forward, and the limited amount of funding the MPO controls, the Greater Madison MPO has elected to support the state and transit agency targets for these measures and to plan and program projects that contribute toward meeting these targets.

The MPO adopted WisDOT's 2026 safety targets on April 1, 2026, through Greater Madison MPO 2026 Resolution No. 6. The MPO adopted WisDOT's 2023 and 2025 targets for interstate pavement condition, non-interstate NHS pavement condition, bridge condition, Interstate Reliability, non-interstate NHS reliability, and freight reliability measures through Greater Madison MPO 2023 Resolution No. 4.

While the MPO supports the state targets, it reports Madison Metropolitan Area or Dane County data annually for all federal measures, along with prior-year performance and overall trends, as part of its annual Performance Measures monitoring process.

The MPO intends to continue supporting Metro Transit's targets for transit asset management (TAM) and the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP), since Metro is the agency with the expertise to best manage its assets in light of funding challenges and safety needs. The MPO adopted the 2023 TAM and PTASP targets in November 2022 through Greater Madison MPO 2022 Resolution No. 13 and again through 2024 Resolution No. 3 in April 2024. The 2024 PTASP and TAM targets were adopted in November 2025 through MPO 2025 Resolutions No. 15 and 16, respectively. The MPO will continue to adopt updated targets after Metro updates its targets.

Linkage of Investments to Performance Measures

Federal rules for metropolitan transportation planning require that the RTP and TIP include, to the maximum extent practicable, a description of their anticipated effect toward achieving established federal transportation system performance measure targets (see 23 CFR 490), thereby linking investment priorities to those performance targets (23 CFR 450.326(d)).