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Performance Based Planning and Programming

This website helps to define the characteristics of performance based planning and programming and present the information that FHWA, FTA and their partners have developed to date. This information should help to assess the effectiveness of plans and programs in meeting state and regional performance goals. A framework of a performance based planning and programming process is being developed that will be consistent with an overall vision of performance management across multiple program areas developed by FHWA, FTA and their partners and includes the following broad steps:

• Visioning is the strategic planning process, focused on setting goals and objectives. This may include scenario planning. These efforts would take into account national goal areas and any state or regional goals, as appropriate.
• Program Area Planning includes specific plans for key program areas. Some of these are now required efforts, such as the Strategic Highway Safety Plan and Congestion Management Process. In other areas, there are no specific planning products currently required, though planning efforts take place, sometimes informally, in these areas. At this level, national and state or regional performance measures are identified and addressed and needs are defined.
• Long-Range Transportation Plans bring together all of an agency's planning efforts to present a comprehensive look at the transportation system. In many State Departments of Transportation, these plans provide broad policy statements which may address transportation system needs and possibly funding levels and constraints.
• Transportation Improvement Programs are the result of the metropolitan and statewide planning processes that leads to specific projects. These would be linked to Long-Range Plans through performance based resource allocation.
• Program and Service Delivery Plans include a wide range of design and other project delivery products and processes.
• Performance Reporting, Monitoring, and Evaluation. This would be a reporting requirement that included descriptions of the performance of each national goal area.