Hampton Roads has entered a new chapter in performance measurement for transportation.  Although the HRTPO has been measuring the performance of the regional transportation system for years, it has modified its set of measures in response to a new state law requiring regional performance measures from metros in Virginia.

In 2009, the General Assembly of Virginia passed legislation codifying regional transportation performance measurement.  In response to the legislation, the HRTPO staff developed a new list of regional performance measures (RPM) by adding measures to those it was already producing through the Congestion Management Process (CMP).  The HRPTO Board approved this list on January 20, 2011 and submitted it to the office of the Secretary of Transportation which will present it—with lists from other large Virginia metros—to the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB)in May for approval in June.  The list contains the following categories of measures:

•    Congestion reduction
•    Safety
•    Transit usage
•    HOV usage
•    Jobs-to-housing balance
•    Access to transit
•    Access to pedestrian facilities
•    Air quality
•    Movement of freight
•    Vehicle Miles of Travel (VMT)
•    Maintenance
•    Financial system

After June, HRTPO staff plan to calculate the RPMs using the latest available data and then help the HRPTO Board set targets for these measures.