The FHWA Corporate Management Strategies (CMS) are embodied in the Quality Journey which we have chosen as our management philosophy. This journey strives for continuous improvement in our performance and in our products by focusing on the seven universally accepted principles, or "Cornerstones," that comprise the Presidential Quality Award criteria. As an organization in the pursuit of excellence, our CMS and the Guiding Principles described elsewhere in this Plan complement each other. Applied together, they constitute an Agency road map for achieving organizational excellence and being recognized as a high performing organization.

The FHWA CMS encompass and support the U.S. DOT's corporate management strategies¹. Four of the six DOT management strategies--Human Resources, Customer Service, Information Technology, and Resource and Business Process--are closely aligned with FHWA management strategies for Human Resource Development and Management, Customer Focus, Information and Analysis, Process Management, and Business Results. The other two DOT management strategies are Research and Technology and ONE DOT. Where the DOT plan uses Research and Technology as a management strategy, FHWA applies it as a guiding principle and in the strategies for goal achievement.

Meeting the ONE DOT strategy deserves special mention. FHWA will support this strategy by working with the other modes to create the best intermodal transportation system in the world. To effectively serve U.S. DOT customers, all modes need to work better together and to partner with providers. FHWA will continuously improve our understanding of and communication, coordination, cooperation and collocation with other U.S. DOT modes and their business partners. We will actively support and participate in the steps identified in the DOT Plan which are designed to achieve ONE DOT.

The FHWA Corporate Management Strategies, based on the seven Quality Cornerstones, are as follows:

Leadership: FHWA leaders will be personally involved in creating and sustaining core values, organizational direction, performance expectations, customer focus, performance monitoring, and performance excellence. Leaders will work toward integrating values and expectations into FHWA's leadership system, including how FHWA continuously learns, improves, and addresses its responsibilities to the public, our partners, our stakeholders, and our customers. FHWA leaders set the vision and direction, ensure accountability, and provide the resources to ensure that we, FHWA, deliver the products and services to our customers, both internal and external, in an excellent and timely manner. We will use scores from assessments using the Presidents's Quality Award criteria as an indicator of progress of our management strategy.

Strategic Planning: Strategic planning is essential to accomplish our mission and work toward achieving our vision. FHWA will use our Strategic Plan to set the direction for the Agency, preparation of annual performance plans and to allocate resources toward attaining our strategic goals. We will establish metrics to measure and assess how well we are delivering products and services to our customers. We will use our annual performance plans as the basis for our organizational performance management system. We will continuously monitor progress, business trends, and the outside environment to adjust our strategic plan.

Human Resource Development and Management: FHWA's successful performance depends on empowered employees who work in a positive, supportive organizational environment. We seek a work place conducive to achieving excellence. We seek an environment where all employees participate, learn and grow. The FHWA will continue to develop and maintain a work force renowned for its professional leadership and technical competence with the widest spectrum of skills and experiences. We will continue to develop a work force with diverse skills and experiences. We will create a work environment that nurtures the personal and professional goals of all of our employees. We will recruit and develop employees for careers with the FHWA family supported by innovative human resource programs and opportunities for individuals to lead the Agency into the 21st century.

Customer and Partner Focus: FHWA will achieve success through extensive cooperation and partnering with State and local transportation agencies, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, the transportation industry, the transportation research community, resource agencies, law enforcement and emergency response agencies, educational institutions, public interest groups and others committed to quality transportation. To increase our customer and partner satisfaction, we will establish processes and procedures to determine customers' requirements and expectations, actively seek and use customer input, adjust to a changing environment, and provide excellent customer service. We will receive and act upon feedback from customer surveys, listening sessions, focus groups, and other learning techniques. We will use the FHWA Quality Journey as the forum for a continuing dialogue between FHWA employees and their internal and external customers to enhance our efficiency and effectiveness.

Information and Analysis: FHWA's leaders, managers, and employees need information to effectively lead and manage the Agency, assess its performance, and implement changes to achieve excellence. To remain a knowledge-based organization, FHWA will provide employees with the capability to effectively acquire, process, store, and retrieve information and to communicate, share, and process information with each other and with our customers and partners. We will improve or re-engineer current information systems, as necessary to keep pace with the state of the practice. We will design new and revised systems, including expert systems and other knowledge-based automated systems, to support a streamlined business processes.

Process Management: FHWA will manage its organizational processes using state of the practice business techniques. FHWA will use customer-focused support, service and delivery processes to improve performance and enhance our products and services. We will establish effective and efficient measures for key business processes. We will employ appropriate feedback mechanisms and assessments from customers and partners. We will design, manage, improve, and re-engineer key processes to achieve excellence.

Business Results (Metrics): The entire Quality Journey process drives providing timely and useful transportation products, services, and technology for our partners and our customers. The focus of the Quality Journey is outstanding service leading to the best transportation system in the world. FHWA will measure the quality of our processes and services and report performance in key business areas including customer satisfaction, financial and program performance, service delivery, technical guidance and support, human resource performance, supplier and partner performance, and operational performance. We will use customer feedback and benchmark high performance organizations to continuously improve our overall performance for our customers.

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT:

FHWA's Strategic Goals and Objectives were developed based on assumptions about both the internal and external environment. If, in the future, there are significant differences from the forecasted trends in personal transport or commercial transport, particularly growth in vehicle-distance traveled, this may affect our ability to meet Strategic Goals and Objectives we have set.

Our ability to achieve FHWA's Strategic Goals is also significantly affected by non-federal investment in the highway transportation sector and the work of State and local governments and the private sector. Providing a National Highway System (NHS) that meets the needs of the Nation and the roads that connect individuals and freight to that system has always been seen as a partnership among all levels of government in the United States. We have assumed that State and local governments will continue to provide their current level of investment and are committed to investing significant resources to maintain the physical infrastructure under their jurisdiction. We have also assumed that the Federal Government will provide the program structure and level of investment requested in the National Economic Crossroads Transportation Efficiency Act proposal.

We are also assuming that increased use of technology (new paving technologies, use of composites for bridge repair, etc.) and innovative financing techniques including State Infrastructure Banks, the Infrastructure Credit Enhancements Program plus other innovations will reduce the cost of providing transportation infrastructure and services and that increased use of network management strategies using ITS technology will increase the capacity of the existing network while at the same time making driving safer.

Demographics: As the population increases, travel demands will increase and change. The Bureau of the Census estimates a 21-percent increase in population by 2020 and a 47-percent increase by 2050. The increase in population will increase the number of trips and distance traveled which, without significant advancements in highway and transportation systems, will lead to additional highway fatalities and injuries and more congestion and environmental damage. While simply preserving the condition and performance of the current highway system is a significant commitment for the highway community, our challenge must be to enhance it.

Personal transport: Life style and land use choices in the United States have resulted in increased highway travel. Highway travel is the predominant mode of travel for individuals; currently, 91 percent of person-distance (miles) traveled are in privately owned vehicles. Between the 1970 and 1990 census, 91 percent of the total U.S. population growth has been in the suburbs and a large percentage of the new jobs created were also in the suburbs. The Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) shows that from 1969 to 1995 there have been large increases in the number of households (55 percent), workers (74 percent), and drivers (72 percent). At the same time, population increased by only 23 percent. With these increases, there has also been a significant increase in the number of vehicles per household. In 1969, there was about one car per household. In 1995, there were close to two cars per household. The data from the 1995 NPTS indicate that household vehicle ownership is beginning to stabilize. The analysis supporting the FHWA's Condition and Performance Report projects that over the next 10 years the vehicle distance (miles) traveled is estimated to increase by 24 percent and by 53 percent in 20 years. More people, more cars, more miles traveled will add more strain to all aspects of the highway system.

The travel demands of different elements of the population, such as people who are elderly, disabled, or have a low income, will affect highway and transportation needs in the future. Currently, persons 65 and older comprise 13 percent of the population. This is expected to become 16 percent in 2020, and 20 percent in 2050 as the baby boom generation and its children's echo boom generation ages. While people over 65 take somewhat fewer trips per day than others (3.43 trips a day compared to 4.42 a day for non-elderly), about 89 percent of their trips are still by private vehicle. In addition, the Census Bureau reports that approximately 54 million people in America have some level of disability. Accessible vehicular and pedestrian transportation are key factors in enabling people with disabilities to find and accept employment and participate in other daily life activities. Since the number of people with disabilities is likely to increase with the aging population, transportation professionals will need to address diverse requirements for mobility, access, safety, and alternatives to private vehicles.

Travel patterns and needs of people with low incomes must also be specifically addressed within the transportation system. Members of lower income households average a significantly higher number of walking trips and do not travel as far from their homes for work. Many of these low income households include welfare recipients who, faced with losing public assistance, have an urgent need to reach jobs, child care providers, and training or education resources. A quarter of low income households do not have cars; however, most trips by these households are still by privately owned vehicles. This difference in travel patterns exacerbates the problems of matching unemployed or underemployed inner city residents with new jobs, often located in the suburbs.

Trends in commercial transport: A significant portion of commercial freight is moved on the highways. Truck freight revenues are more than 75 percent of freight revenues for all modes and transport one half the weight, and nearly 25 percent of the ton-miles of all freight shipments in the United States and its territories. The number of commercial trucks on America's highways grew by 76 percent between 1982 and 1992, while vehicle distance traveled doubled. To be competitive in the global economy, U.S. producers must maximize the efficiency of production and distribution. For example, just-in-time delivery systems have greatly reduced overhead costs and freight logistics systems have increased efficiency. As manufacturers rely more extensively on improved logistics to increase economic efficiency, demands on highway capacity and reliability increase. The advent of new information-processing technologies and telecommunications, which allow distant operations to be linked together, will create an industrial system that is increasingly competitive and places a premium on speed and market responsiveness.

Technology opportunities and challenges: Traditionally, the highway system has focused on physically moving people and freight. Past solutions to increasing demands for capacity and efficiency were to expand the infrastructure, change the vehicles, or streamline the physical operations. However, through tremendous advancements in telecommunications and technology, the highway system and other modes have the opportunity to apply new solutions, creating an integrated, highly efficient global transportation system. This intelligent transportation infrastructure will be a communication and information network that supports transportation's physical infrastructure, provides information systems and enables intermodalism.

Many of the challenges in developing and deploying the telecommunications technologies today are institutional barriers. Highway and transportation agencies and providers have computer and data systems that were created and operated independently. Now that the ITS projects are demonstrating significant reductions in user and government costs, favorable benefit cost ratios, reduced highway crashes, and cheaper and more environmentally benign capacity than new construction, stakeholders in the transportation system are working and planning together to tap into integrated data systems. The intelligent transportation infrastructure will create information and communication linkages among transportation users and providers to maximize intermodal management and efficiency.

Outreach to Customers and Partners: FHWA worked with its customers and partners throughout the strategic planning process. The DOT and the FHWA gathered very useful information during the extensive outreach conducted last year in preparation for the reauthorization of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). This outreach included 13 regional forums and over 100 focus groups in approximately 40 States throughout the country. The information from these meetings provided valuable input for the FHWA's development of its vision, mission, and goals.

For the next step in the planning process, FHWA asked its customers and partners to identify strategic objectives and indicators that would best measure progress towards the goals. A Federal Register Notice to collect broad public comment was published in the spring. This Notice was also included on the FHWA home page on the Internet. A total of 14 States, 4 associations, and 7 Federal partners provided written comments. Additionally, more than 85 people representing 45 different organizations participated in a series of small focus groups to develop objectives and indicators. At the conclusion of the focus groups, FHWA convened a small group of key partners representing the State partners, industry, environment, and safety groups to review the information collected and also make recommendations.

The results of this outreach were very beneficial to the development of the Strategic Plan. Similar objectives, indicators, priorities, and strategies emerged from many of the participants and commenters. Generally, customers and partners support strategic planning as a very worthwhile process to ensure government accountability and results. In summary, the common themes from the outreach process included:

• work to improve the operation of the highway system by increasing intermodal linkages for freight and passengers;

• increase access throughout communities for drivers and non-drivers;

• measure improvements in highway operations through customer satisfaction surveys, and reduced user costs, congestion, and travel time on highways;

• increase the capacity of the highway system to improve the productivity of the nation and measure improvement by reduced travel times and freight costs, and more access to jobs;

• ensure that highways are safe by continually reducing crashes;

• focus on the highest safety risks such as run-off-the-road crashes, pedestrians, rail road grade crossing, and commercial vehicles;

• reduce transportation related pollution and protect ecosystems through improved highway operations and planning;

• streamline the environmental process to make it more effective to meet the environmental goals and ensure the efficiency of the programs;

• enhance partnerships, communications, data, and technology to support military mobilization and disaster response; and

• assist small and disadvantaged businesses to participate in economic growth.

Relationship between goals in the annual program performance plans and the FHWA Strategic Plan:

Each of the FHWA's three major programs (the Federal-aid Highway Program, the Motor Carrier Program, and the Federal Lands Highway Program) is preparing a performance plan that included program specific performance goals and indicators that will contribute to achieving the overall Agency Strategic Goals and Objectives in the FHWA Strategic Plan. Program performance goals will include a mixture of outcome and output goals and indicators that will allow the agency leadership, managers, and workers to assess progress both in producing the outputs within FHWA control and influencing the outcomes that are within the Agency's sphere of influence.

With the exception of the Federal Lands Highway Program which participated in the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) performance planning pilot, the first Program Performance Plans are being prepared for Fiscal Year 1999. These will not be final until the Agency's budget for Fiscal Year 1999 is passed by Congress. Based on our experience with the Federal Lands Pilot, it is also likely that performance goals and indicators may be adjusted in future years as we learn to better define our goals and monitor our performance.

Statutory Authority: The FHWA programs are primarily authorized under Titles 23 and 49 of U.S. Code. Title 23 includes the authority for the Federal-Aid, Federal Lands, research and development, international outreach, and National Highway Institute programs. Title 49 (Chapters 5, 51, 59, 311, 313, and 315) addresses the motor carrier safety programs.

Program Evaluations:

FHWA will use a variety of ongoing and new program evaluations to monitor its progress under its Strategic Plan. The FHWA plan uses existing data sources such as the International Roughness Index, the National Bridge Inventory, Fatal Accident Reporting System, and the General Estimating System. We will also be conducting customer satisfaction surveys with the general public to determine access and mobility issues as well as community impacts under the Environmental goal. In areas that will require new data such as NHS border crossings, intermodal connectors on the NHS, and life cycle costs, FHWA will work with its State and local government partners to address any new data requirements.

Methodology Key:

Longitudinal: Study of datum points or data series before and after intervention

Cross Sectional: Study of different groups or sites at the same point in time

Statistical: Regression analysis, etc.

Combination: Use of two or more complementary analytic techniques

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

¹ United States Department of Transportation Strategic Plan, 1997-2002, September 30, 1997, pp. 57-71.