Relationship of Asset Condition Rating to Transit System Performance

FTA's Transit Economic Requirements Model (TERM) focuses on the physical condition of transit assets, leaving unanswered the question of how physical condition relates to transit system performance. The objective of federal transit aid is to provide certain benefits to the public, including safe and convenient service to riders and secondary community benefits, in a cost-effective manner. TERM is applied to project the costs of meeting targets for condition of transit assets, but FTA's reporting of TERM's results does not make clear the relationship between this condition target and transit benefits or compare the benefits of alternative condition targets. Therefore, TERM is not now providing direct guidance to Congress on how to meet the federal transit program's objectives. To assist in addressing this problem, this paper: Outlines a practical research and data collection effort that FTA could undertake to better quantify the condition/performance relationship. Suggests how FTA's Conditions and Performance reports might characterize the performance impact of attaining the national state-of-good-repair standar