Measuring What We Value

Measuring performance in transportation is fundamentally about making sure a project supports the priorities of a state or community. Over the last several years, an increasing number of agencies began promoting a broader range of priorities, including better connecting all residents to economic opportunity, resources, and essential services. Smart Growth America’s Measuring What We Value Technical Assistance program helps your state department of transportation, transit agency, or local transportation agency prioritize your desired outcomes, meet federal and state requirements and do so in a way that addresses community concerns.

Rooted in Transportation for America’s seminal report, Measuring What We Value: Setting Priorities and Evaluating Success in Transportation, SGA and its program T4A, work with state and local agencies to identify strategic goals for the transportation network, develop performance measures that track progress toward those goals, and recommend targets under each of those measures. Due to the organizational relationship between SGA and T4A, our assistance is able to consider a variety of factors that extend beyond transportation and into land use and development issues. Our assistance also explores the new data and tools available to help agencies evaluate transportation performance in new ways.

Measuring performance in transportation is about more than keeping your road smooth; it’s about spending scarce public dollars on projects that do the most good. Increased transparency, better outcomes, and greater efficiency are what keep the public supportive and what get projects built.

If you believe what we do — that measuring your transportation investments to reflect priorities and communicate real outcomes is the best way to do business — contact us today to start making smart investments today.