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Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS)

  • HPMS is a federal data collection and reporting program regarding the extent, condition, performance, use, and operational characteristics of the nation’s highways. It was created in 1978 by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and has evolved over the decades to meet changing business needs. All states and territories participate in HPMS. Regulation 23 CFR 1.5 provides the FHWA administrator with authority to request such information deemed necessary to administer the federal-aid highway program, and 23 CFR 420.105(b) requires states to provide data that support FHWA's responsibilities to Congress and the public.

    • Count based traffic volume data (hourly counts, ADTs, or AADT's) on all federal aid roads.
    • The year the traffic data was collected.
    • Length of count: 24 hour, 48 hour, seven-day etc.
    • Location of the count: Road name and description, or PR and PR milepoint, or road name with latitude and longitude.
  • Certified public road mileage

    • 23 CFR 460 requires the use of public road mileage in the apportionment of 23 U.S. Code Section 402 funds to the states. States are required to certify public road mileage annually in an official letter to the FHWA State Division Office signed by the governor or a designee by June 15. Michigan governors have historically designated the director of MDOT to certify public road mileage on his/her behalf. Certified public road mileage is subject to FHWA approval.

    Learn more about Certified Public Mileage (CPM).

    Roadway Attributes Data

    • Roadway Attributes Data is separated into the following categories:
      • Designations
        • Functional system
        • National Highway System (NHS)
        • Strategic Highway Network (STRAHNET)
        • National Truck Network (NN)
        • National Highway Freight Network (NHFN)
      • Identifications
        • Route number
        • Route signing
        • Route qualifier
        • Route name
      • Inventory
        • Urban ID
        • Facility type
        • Structure type
        • Ownership
        • County ID
        • Maintenance and operations
        • Is restricted
      • Lanes
        • Through lanes
        • Managed lanes operations type
        • Managed lanes
        • Peak lanes
        • Counter peak lanes
        • Toll ID
        • Lane width
        • Median type
        • Median width
        • Shoulder type
        • Right shoulder width
        • Left shoulder width
        • Peak parking
        • Directional through lanes
      • Intersections
        • Right-turn lanes
        • Left-turn lanes
        • Signal type
        • Percent green time
        • Number of signalized intersections
        • Number of stop sign-controlled intersections
        • Number of intersections, type-other
      • Traffic
        • Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT)
        • Single-unit truck and bus AADT
        • Percent design hour single-unit truck and bus
        • Combination unit truck AADT
        • Percent design hour combination trucks
        • K-factor
        • Directional factor
        • Future year AADT
      • Control
        • Access control
        • Speed limit
      • Pavement
        • International Roughness Index (IRI)
        • Present Serviceability Rating (PSR)
        • Surface type
        • Rutting
        • Faulting
        • Cracking percent
        • Year of last improvement
        • Year of last construction
        • Last overlay thickness
        • Thickness rigid
        • Thickness flexible
        • Base type
        • Base thickness
        • Soil type
      • Terrain
        • Widening potential
        • Curve classification
        • Terrain type
        • Grade classification
        • Percent passing sight distance
      • Travel time code

    Roadway Attribute Data is reported on various extents of the public road network. These extents include:

    • All public roads
    • Federal-aid highways
    • National Highway System (NHS)
    • HPMS sample limits

    For detailed descriptions of the Roadway Attributes data, see the HPMS Field Manual.

    Summary

    • Summary data is provided on the use, extent, condition, and performance of the lower functionally classed roadways that are not part of the federal-aid highway system. This data includes travel, system length, and vehicle classification, sorted by functional system and area type. Area types include rural, small urban, and individualized urban areas. The following Summary data is included in HPMS:
      • Vehicle summary – The vehicle summary consists of percentages of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by vehicle group and roadway functional classification.
      • Non-federal-aid summary – The non-federal-aid summary contains information about travel on non-federal-aid roads (rural minor collector and local) for each adjusted census urbanized area and small urban and rural areas.
      • County summary – The county summary contains system length information for all rural minor collector and local roads, including NHS routes for all counties. Ownership and maintenance responsibilities are included in this summary.

    Estimates

    • Estimates datasets provide estimates of current State and local pavement conditions and construction practices where measured data are unavailable. These data are used for national-level analysis in various FHWA models. Estimates data includes the following:
      • Last Overlay Thickness
      • Thickness rigid
      • Thickness flexible
      • Base type
      • Base thickness
      • Binder type
      • Dowel bar
      • Joint spacing
      • Paved length
      • Unpaved length

    Road event collection methods

    • The road event collection methods, formerly known as metadata, provides additional information for understanding the variability in certain traffic and pavement-related data items reported to HPMS. It describes data collection procedures and post-processing that may affect the consistency or quality of the data, is used to ensure conformity with the National Performance Management Measures requirements detailed in 23 CFR Part 490, and for other data quality needs. The collection methods apply to an entire data item or group of data items, and not any single data item entry. The data may be published in the Highway Statistics publication, or provided to data users upon request. However, the collection methods will not be used by FHWA to alter a state’s submitted data.

    For a list of road event collection methods, see the HPMS Field Manual.

    ARNOLD segments

    The All Roads Network of Linear Referenced Data (ARNOLD) segments requirement is the geospatial component of HPMS. It is a GIS layer of all public roads with a route ID and measures. Michigan uses the PR network for HPMS’ ARNOLD component. All roadway attribute and sample limits data maps to the PR network with a PR-route ID and mile point.

    Michigan’s ARNOLD can be downloaded at the Michigan Open Data Portal.

    Travel Time Metrics Data (TTM)

    States are required to submit travel time metric data for the interstate system and non-interstate national highway system by June 15 to the HPMS, annually, as required in 23 CFR 490. All data are to be reported for both the inventory and non-inventory directions of travel. This fulfills the PM3 requirement of the transportation performance measures under MAP-21. Travel Time Metric Data includes:

    • Travel time code
    • Functional system
    • Urban ID
    • Facility type
    • National Highway System
    • Directional AADT
    • AM peak level of travel time reliability
    • AM peak 50th percentile travel time
    • AM peak 80th percentile travel time
    • Midday level of travel time reliability
    • Midday 50th percentile travel time
    • Midday 80th percentile travel time
    • PM peak level of travel time reliability
    • PM peak 50th percentile travel time
    • PM peak 80th percentile travel time
    • Weekend level of travel time reliability
    • Weekend 50th percentile travel time
    • Weekend 80th percentile travel time
    • AM peak truck travel time reliability
    • AM peak 50th percentile truck travel time
    • AM peak 95th percentile truck travel time
    • Midday truck travel time reliability
    • Midday 50th percentile truck travel time
    • PM peak truck Travel Time Reliability
    • PM peak 50th percentile truck travel time
    • PM peak 95th percentile truck travel time
    • Overnight truck travel time reliability
    • Overnight 50th percentile truck travel time
    • Overnight 95th percentile truck travel time
    • Weekend truck travel time reliability
    • Weekend 50th percentile truck travel time
    • Weekend 95th percentile truck travel time
    • PHED (Peak Hour Excessive Delay)
    • Occupancy factor
    • Travel time metric data source

    Sample limits

    The majority of HPMS data is collected and reported on a sample-basis. HPMS uses a sampling of all public roads not functionally classified as local roads or rural minor collectors to provide an expandable base to represent condition, use, and operational information for the nation’s roadways.

    Learn more about HPMS sampling and TOPS.

  • HPMS is the official source of national level data for the nation’s highways. HPMS data is widely accepted and used throughout the transportation community. Users of HPMS data include governmental entities, public and private sector research, industry, media, among others. HPMS information is used for a variety of FHWA publications, programs, and business processes. These include:

    • Status of the Nation’s Highways, Bridges, and Transit: Conditions and Performance: A biennial report to Congress on future highway investment and other transportation needs of the nation.
    • Highway Statistics: An annual publication.
    • Highway Economic Requirements System (HERS) Model: For investment requirements modeling to calculate capacity and estimate roadway deficiencies and improvement needs.
    • National Performance Management Measures: Also known as Transportation Performance Measures (TPM), performance reporting and measure computation processes for Pavement, Congestion, and Safety as required by 23 CFR 490.
    • Truck size and weight (TSW) analysis
    • Apportionment of federal-aid highway funds
    • Pavement modeling and cost allocation studies
    • Congestion analysis
    • Freight analysis framework
  • HPMS data comes from a variety of sources. MDOT maintains all HPMS data in its roads and highways database. Other MDOT databases house data that is provided to HPMS. Traffic data is collected by the Travel Information Unit, who partners with regional and local agencies to collect traffic counts. Pavement distress data is collected by a third-party vendor and also the Transportation Asset Management Council (TAMC). For non state-owned sample sections, MDOT partners with Metropolitan Planning Organizations and Regional Planning Agencies, who coordinate with local road agencies to collect data.

    • Pavement distress: IRI, rutting, faulting, percent cracking, surface type, and present serviceability rating are required to be collected and reported annually on the interstate highways and biennially on the non-interstate NHS and sample sections.
    • Traffic: Traffic counts are required on the NHS and sample sections at minimum every three years. All remaining federal-aid highways are required to be counted at least every six years.
    • All other data: All other data is to be updated as roadway conditions change.