PERFORMANCE MEASURES FOR RURAL TRANSIT OPERATORS. FINAL REPORT

Despite the increased interest in performance indicators for large transit systems, there has not been an equal effort at establishing similar techniques for small and rural systems. In response to this problem, this project developed a methodology to evaluate the relative performance of the Section 18 operators. It was found that the agencies could be compared using measures of cost efficiency, cost effectiveness, service utilization, vehicle utilization, quality of service, labor productivity, and accessibility. The transit agencies and the Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation can use these measures for analysis of performance trends, evaluation of overall system performance, transit planning, and technical assistance. The procedure uses a standard score methodology to compare the performance of individual agencies to the mean of all rural transit operators in Texas. It was determined that the use of peer groups of similar agencies would not significantly change the conclusions regarding agency performance. Peer groups would, however, increase the time to prepare a performance evaluation and the agencies within each peer group would change annually, making trend comparisons more difficult. The transit operators indicated a desire for information and suggestions from staff members of the Public Transportation Division of the Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation on methods to improve performance. More review of the statistics provided by the operators and greater communication between the operators and Public Transportation Division staff would increase the usefulness of the performance measures.