Mid-America Regional Council Pilot of the Data Business Plan for State and Local Departments of Transportation: Data Business Plan

Chapter 1. Introduction

The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) is both an association of city and county government, as well as the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the Kansas City Region, encompassing 119 city governments and nine counties split across Kansas and Missouri. MARC collects, manages, reports, and shares a variety of mobility data for various purposes. One important initiative they have in place is performance management. MARC is actively working to meet the performance management requirements of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century (MAP‑21) and the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Acts. It also has its own performance measures program with a focus on mobility.

MARC identified the following challenges that need to be addressed:

1. Be better equipped and prepared for shifts in transportation as a result of technology. MARC refers to this as Digital Transportation.
2. The traditional planning model is starting to fall short of MARC's needs in preparing for the future. Through scenario planning, MARC can reinvent how its planning processes are conducted.
3. Make policy-making more integrated with analysis. This depends on access to good information and increased analytical capability.

An important common denominator for these three needs is data, along with the people and processes to manage it. This Data Business Plan (DBP) serves as a framework to develop a process for managing mobility data to better support mobility performance measurement in the region. Performance measure areas include transit operations, highway operations, freight operations and bicycle and pedestrian (bicycle/pedestrian) usage. Mobility data to support performance measures include on‑time transit performance, bicycle/pedestrian counts, and travel time/speed and Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) for vehicles and freight.

During the development of this DBP in 2016, MARC made great strides with its data processes. With the hiring of an additional staff member, the agency is developing a geographic information system (GIS) inventory to document existing GIS data at MARC and identify gaps. This will enable MARC to be proactive rather than reactive in addressing gaps.

In addition, MARC staff created the Data Coordination Group to lead the agency's data management practices and ensure MARC's data and data processes are more accessible to external stakeholders. Currently, MARC's data often consists of separate, siloed databases or spreadsheets. There needs to be better systems of data collection, standards, and governance. Ultimately, MARC staff desire to reach a point where there is a robust data-sharing culture, where MARC divisions and external partners assist each other by adding value to their data by using, combining, validating, and analyzing it.

The current challenges MARC experiences in managing its data can be grouped around three areas:

1. Data Systems: Some of the data sets required to calculate the measures listed above are difficult to analyze due to their large size and network conflation challenges.
2. Technology: Analyzing the large data sets requires knowledge of specialized software tools, such as Statistical Analysis Software (SAS), R, Oracle, etc.
3. Governance: There is a need for internal data collaboration within MARC, as well as externally with regional partner agencies.

To address these concerns, MARC developed this DBP to better understand how the data could support mobility planning, operations, and performance measure activities; and who is responsible for managing and updating the data. This DBP was developed through participation in the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) Roadway Transportation DBP project, in which the MPO pilot tested a guide document to help State DOT and local agency staff charged with mobility data-related responsibilities to develop, implement, and maintain tailored data business plans for mobility data.

The expected outcome of this effort is to advance a process for developing, collecting, calculating, and reporting on performance measures to support mobility in the region. To meet this need, the DBP provides clear tasks, strategies, benchmarks, performance measures, and timelines to ensure there is accountability for actions. The DBP establishes a clear roadmap that will result in improved data sharing with stakeholders, improved ability to develop and use performance measures, support applying for grants, and demonstrate a return on investment in data efforts.

Scope

For the purposes of this pilot, mobility data is defined as on‑time performance data for transit, bicycle/pedestrian counts, and travel time/speed and VMT for vehicles and freight. However, MARC wants the DBP to serve as a living document and go beyond that initial set of data. The geographic scope of the DBP is limited to the nine counties that encompass the region.

Organization

The remainder of the DBP is organized as follows:

• Chapter 2: Stakeholder Outreach. This section identifies the stakeholders for mobility data and summarizes outreach activities used to engage stakeholders throughout each step of the DBP development process.
• Chapter 3: Data and Gap Assessment. This section summarizes issues related to the collection, management, governance, and use of mobility data in the Hillsborough area. It identifies gaps and overlaps that exist in program activities, as well as recommended strategies and actions to address the gaps.
• Chapter 4: Data Governance Framework. This section recommends a framework for using data governance principles to support mobility data. It provides a governance framework and defines roles and responsibilities for data governance.
• Chapter 5: Implementation Plan. This section provides a roadmap for implementing the DBP.
• Appendix A: Stakeholder Registry.
• Appendix B: Stakeholder Letter.
• Appendix C: Stakeholder Survey.
• Appendix D: Example Data Sharing Agreement.
• Appendix E: Example Data Governance Manual.
• Appendix F: Glossary.
• Appendix G: Regional Case Studies.
• Appendix H: External Case Studies.
• Appendix I: Best Practices.