Recommendations for Executive Action

1. Status: Closed - Implemented

   Comments: In 2008, we reported that local travel models should be improved to develop and employ better measures of project impacts . We indicate that the benefit of improved local travel models would extend beyond transit, as the data from these models are used to inform regional transportation planning for other modes of transportation, as well. We recommended that the Secretary of Transportation (DOT) seek resources to improve local travel models . DOT's Fiscal Year 2012 Budget highlights indicates that, as part of a 6-year reauthorization proposal , states and localities will be encouraged to improve their planning models in order to have better data to make sound investment decisions with federal funding. The budget request indicates that the Administration's proposal will bolster state and metropolitan planning; award funds to high performing communities; and empower the most capable communities and planning organizations to determine which projects deserve funding. As a result, DOT is encouraging improvements to models along with its request for increased funding for transit.

   Recommendation: To improve the New Starts evaluation process and the measures of project benefits, which could change the relative ranking of projects, the Secretary of Transportation should seek additional resources to improve local travel models in the next authorizing legislation.

   Agency Affected: Department of Transportation

2. Status: Closed - Not Implemented

   Comments: No change. The agency concurs, in part, but is awaiting Congress' decisions during the surface transportation reauthorization. MAP-21 does not require FTA to consider the dollar value of mobility improvements. FTA is not seeking to apply a dollar value to mobility improvements nor seeking a change in legislation at this time. FTA evaluates mobility improvements for New Starts projects as the total number of linked trips using the proposed project, with a weight of two given to trips that would be made on the project by transit dependent persons.

   Recommendation: To improve the New Starts evaluation process and the measures of project benefits, which could change the relative ranking of projects, the Secretary of Transportation should seek a legislative change to allow FTA to consider the dollar value of mobility improvements in evaluating projects, developing regulations, or carrying out any other duties.

   Agency Affected: Department of Transportation

3. Status: Closed - Not Implemented

   Comments: No change. FTA expects to award the contract in early 2009 and complete the implementation of new approaches to measuring highway benefits by spring 2010. Because MAP-21 requires that the calculation of Cost-Effectiveness be based on "Cost-Per Trip," instead of the previous measure of "cost-per-hour of user benefits," there is no longer a need to identify short-or long-term approaches for measuring highway user benefits. However, FTA and FHWA are working together on a research project to identify short-term and long-term approaches to identify congestion relief benefits of transit projects to address other requirements of MAP-21.

   Recommendation: To improve the New Starts evaluation process and the measures of project benefits, which could change the relative ranking of projects, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of FTA to establish a timeline for issuing, awarding, and implementing the result of its request for proposals on short- and long-term approaches to measuring highway user benefits from transit improvements.

   Agency Affected: Department of Transportation

4. Status: Closed - Implemented

   Comments: In 2008, we reported that although the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) committed to work with environmental experts to improve how it measures environmental benefits of proposed New Start transit projects, FTA had not begun this effort. We recommended that FTA establish a timeline for its effort to develop more robust measures of transit projects' environmental benefits that are practically useful in distinguishing among proposed projects. Rather than establish a timeframe, FTA moved to improve how it measures environmental benefits. As documented in its January 2012 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FTA proposed a new approach for better measuring environmental benefits of proposed New Start projects. The January 2012 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking considered public comments and proposed measuring environmental benefits of a proposed project's on several factors including changes in emissions, greenhouse gases, safety, energy use and public health. These factors would be monetized and compared to the annualized capital and operating cost of the proposed project to measure the benefits. As a result, FTA is improving its measurement and evaluation of environmental benefits of New Starts transit projects; and thus will improve the projects FTA recommends for federal funding.

   Recommendation: To improve the New Starts evaluation process and the measures of project benefits, which could change the relative ranking of projects, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of FTA to establish a timeline for initiating and completing its longer-term effort to develop more robust measures of transit projects' environmental benefits that are practically useful in distinguishing among proposed projects, including consultation with the transit community.

   Agency Affected: Department of Transportation

5. Status: Closed - Implemented

   Comments: In July 2008, we found that the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) faces systemic challenges to improving the New Starts program, including addressing limitations in local travel models that generate local travel demand forecasts, which may not provide all of the information needed for FTA to properly evaluate transit projects. We found that local travel models used by most metropolitan planning organizations (MPO)--regional organizations responsible for transportation planning and programming in urban areas that build, maintain, and operate transportation infrastructure and services--are generally able to represent aggregate and corridor-level travel demand, but they are not dynamic. This limitation affects a model's ability to accurately represent travel behavior, thus limiting a model's ability to provide all of the information needed to properly evaluate transit projects. While FTA had taken steps to mitigate the modeling limitations, they continued to face challenges in doing so. As a result, FTA developed proxy measures to account for certain project benefits that could not be accurately modeled, such as a project's impact on highway congestion. At the time of our review, FTA developed a request for proposals to seek approaches for predicting changes in highway user benefits that could be used over 5 years. In addition, FTA approached the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to assist in this effort, but FHWA declined to participate because it deemed the issue only relevant to transit. However, Department of Transportation (DOT) officials stated that improvements to travel models would have impacts on numerous programs, including highway programs. Consequently, we recommended that FTA and FHWA collaborate in efforts to improve the consistency and reliability of local travel models, including the aforementioned request for proposals on approaches to measuring highway user benefits. The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) contained a number of incentives for MPO's to improve local transit models, such as performance-based planning for highway and transit projects and increased funding for research programs. In addition, in July 2015, to improve the consistency and reliability of local travel models, FTA and FHWA worked collaboratively to complete a research project to identify whether traffic assignment and feedback practices in MPO travel models are sufficiently accurate for quantifying highway benefits for major transit projects, among other things, which came out of the request for proposals. By collaborating with FHWA on this research project, it was determined that there were widespread deficiencies in the implementation of the models, but with available methodological improvements and more extensive computation, existing methods could produce plausible estimates of highway and transit project impacts. Moreover, the research project found that a comparison between modeled and measured congested travel times from commercial sources indicated that the models underestimate travel speeds and that using speed data would be beneficial to model calibration and validation. The modeling improvements discussed in this collaborative research project should provide FTA the tools to obtain the information FTA needs to properly evaluate transit projects and affect the way planning is done and, thus, have impacts on numerous local, state, and federal programs, including highway programs.

   Recommendation: To improve the New Starts evaluation process and the measures of project benefits, which could change the relative ranking of projects, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrators of FTA and FHWA to collaborate in efforts to improve the consistency and reliability of local travel models, including the aforementioned request for proposals on approaches to measuring highway user benefits.

   Agency Affected: Department of Transportation

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