Federal Transit Planning And Research Program Workshop Report

Two conferences on Refocusing Transportation Planning for the 21st Century were held in 1999 following passage of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). The first conference focused on the identification of key trends, issues, and general areas of research. The results of Conference I, which produced stand-alone products, were used as input for Conference II. The second conference had the specific objective of producing research problem statements. Its mission was to review the results of the first conference by developing these statements. Conference II produced a number of detailed research statements that form the basis for the National Agenda for Transportation Planning Research. The proceedings of both conferences are presented in this report.

Public demand and federal funding for transit have grown in recent years, yet most of this funding is not tied to performance. As Congress prepares for reauthorization of the federal surface transportation programs, this report examined: (1) the extent to which federal transit programs use performance information in making decisions about funding distribution and in evaluating the programs' effectiveness; (2) mechanisms for making these programs more performance based, and strategies for supporting their successful implementation; and (3) how selected U.S. and foreign transit agencies have used performance measurement in their planning and decisions, and their views on the federal role in transit. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand report.