Freight Efficiency Index Dashboard

Component 1: Intermodal

Approximate 43 miles of intermodal roadways (ports and intermodal facilities) are included in this measure, more than half are Functional Class Principle Arterial or above (e.g. design speed 35-55mph).
Several GIS/SAS steps select data for the highway segments at each location for the corresponding quarter.
The resulting average speeds are placed in a table, and the key indicator is an average speed representing all locations:
Specifically, the quarterly measurement is the average of the average speed at 30 facilities.

Component 2: Bottleneck (Key Indicator for Congestion Intensity)

30 bottleneck/interchange locations are utilized; the locations were identified by FHWA Office of Policy through its 2008 Freight Bottleneck Assessment.
Several GIS/SAS steps select data for the highway segments at each location for the corresponding quarter.
A measure for weekday AM/PM peak and nonpeak average speed is calculated.
The nonpeak average speed is divided by the peak average speed, producing a nonpeak/peak ratio – this number is the key indicator.
- The higher the number, the more variable the speed, and thus the greater the intensity of the congested time periods.
  - Example 1: (55 MPH nonpeak)/ (55 MPH peak) = a measure of 1. There is no variability.
  - Example 2: (55 MPH nonpeak)/ (20 MPH peak) = a measure of 2.75. This is a high measure indicating a strong variation between peak and nonpeak.
For the final dashboard, the average of the 30 bottleneck nonpeak/peak measurements is calculated quarterly.

Component 3: Border Crossing

15 U.S./Canada border crossings are measured for this component. At those crossings, an inbound and outbound monthly minutes per mile measurement is produced. These measures are produced using a tool developed by ATRI and FHWA in 2010.
The minutes per mile is created for each month and for each directional crossing.
- An average is produced for each month.
- For the quarter, the three monthly measurements are averaged for a single quarterly minutes per mile measurement.
On the FEI scale, higher minutes per mile numbers result in lower scoring.

Component 4: Urban Mobility

Data processing for this measurement is performed within the original space-mean-speed calculation tool developed by ATRI and FHWA in roughly three stages from 2002-2006.
The SQL database that is populated by this tool is queried during specific time periods across each quarter.
Several GIS steps select data for the highway segments at each location for the corresponding quarter.
For the FEI dashboard, the key measurement used is the average of 14 peak weekday average speeds representing each of the following locations
- Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
- Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH
- Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI
- Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
- Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI
- Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land, TX
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL
- New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
- Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
- Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
The average of the average speeds is next converted to minutes per mile (60/X MPH)
- 60/60 MPH would be 1 minute per mile.
- 60/45 MPH would be 1.33 minutes per mile.
On the FEI scale, higher minutes per mile numbers result in lower scoring.

Aggregate Figure

For the final FEI measurement, each of the four final measures is converted to a figure between 1 and 100 based on how that number relates to the 3 year worst and best scores.
The calculation is: =(max – current quarter) * 100/(max - min)
The four numbers are averaged after they are converted to the 1-100 scale resulting in the final measurement.