A new approach to measuring improvements to the transportation system

(Traducciones de este información están disponibles en español. Para solicitar información o preguntar en español, favor de email weigell@milwaukieoregon.gov.)

Recent changes to the state rules governing transportation planning in Oregon emphasize and require the City of Milwaukie—and other metropolitan cities—to adopt a performance-based approach to TSP development. This means the city has to adopt performance standards.

What is a performance standard? 

Performance standards include two components:

1. A measure, estimate, or projection of some characteristic of the transportation system.  
2. A target threshold to determine if the city is making improvements to that characteristic of the transportation system.

How does this change transportation planning? 

The concept of using performance-management principles in transportation planning is not new. In fact, the city currently uses a standard that measures how long automobiles are delayed at intersections during the busiest travel times. While the city will likely continue to use that standard (or something like it) to measure the movement of automobiles, the new state rules require the city to adopt standards that cumulatively support reducing transportation-related climate pollution (like CO2 emissions from vehicle tailpipes). 

At least one of the standards adopted must also support making it easier to get around without an automobile and advance transportation planning objectives like safety and accessibility. Because Milwaukie is part of a regional transportation network, climate pollution reduction targets are set by the regional planning authority, Metro. As such, the city will work with Metro to track progress on these targets.

The city is considering adopting four performance standards. 

These standards measure how certain aspects of the transportation system are working and establish targets for improving those aspects of the system.

1.  Accessibility to public transit: The measure looks at the percentage of a population, jobs, or households living within a certain distance or travel time from a transit stop.

2.  Bicycle Level of Traffic Stress (BLTS): BLTS classifies segments of roadways into different categories of stress based on factors that correlate to the comfort and safety of the bicyclist using that facility. Characteristics that might improve comfort and safety include separated bicycle lanes, specific signals for cyclists, less car traffic or slower speeds.

3.  Pedestrian Level of Traffic Stress (PLTS):Like BLTS, PLTS classifies segments of roadways into different categories of stress based on factors that correlate to the comfort and safety of the pedestrian using that facility. For example, are there sidewalks, is there landscaping between the sidewalk and the vehicle travel lane, what's the speed limit, etc.  

4.  System Completeness: System completeness identifies all the sidewalks, bike lanes, roadway connections, etc. throughout the city and identifies where we would like to increase those faciliites in the future.

For those wanting to learn more about BLTS and PLTS, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency in Tennessee created a StoryMap illustrating the concepts.

How would a standard like "accessibility to public transit" be used?

Milwaukie’s TSP will likely look at the percentage of households in the city that live within ¼ mile of a transit route that can be accessed by foot using sidewalks and other safe pedestrian routes like multi-use pathways. The analysis will also show which households are lacking good access to public transportation which in turn will reveal where there are gaps in the city's network of pedestrian facilities. 

Using the percentage of households with good access to transit as a baseline, the city will be able to set a realistic target for what percentage of households should have better access to transit in the future if certain improvements are made. Since the city does not directly make decisions about transit routes (TriMet does that), the best way to improve access to transit from a transportation planning perspective is by providing new and better connections - making it easier to reach the routes that already exist.

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