For SANDAG, monitoring our progress is not just a good idea – it’s a legal requirement. We hold ourselves accountable for tracking our progress so that goals for the region are met.
Regional Plan Performance Monitoring
The 2018 Regional Monitoring Report was accepted by the Board of Directors on January 25, 2019.
Chapter 5 of the 2021 Regional Plan describes using performance monitoring indicators to help gauge the Regional Plan’s progress. Traditionally, these indicators have relied on current and historic data collected by SANDAG to demonstrate whether the region is making progress toward implementing its plans. The 23 performance monitoring indicators follow the overall vision and goals of the Regional Plan and are grouped into the plan’s three goal categories of supporting a healthy environment and communities, creating a more vibrant economy, and incorporating innovative mobility and planning.
SANDAG prepares performance monitoring reports for the Regional Plan on a four-year cycle. Reviewing key outcomes every several years provides a foundation for preparing future updates to the plan.
State of the Commute
The SANDAG Overall Work Program includes several performance reporting tasks that focus on monitoring, tracking, and collecting regional transportation data. These efforts include the analysis of transportation data to understand how the region’s transportation system is operating through the development of State of the Commute reports.
The 2021 State of the Commute report provides information on freeway, transit, and local roadways usage and performance data collected on an annual basis. It also presents “before and after” statistics that document the benefits in transportation system performance based on project improvements completed in the region.
The development of the State of Commute reports represents an ongoing effort to document the performance and operation of the transportation system. The information provided in these reports is consistent with transportation performance indicators documented in the Regional Comprehensive Plan Performance Monitoring Report and in the Regional Plan.
SANDAG worked with Caltrans, MTS, and NCTD to define the performance indicators for developing this report.
Transit Passenger Counting Program Reporting
SANDAG provides transit system monitoring through its Passenger Counting Program (PCP). Ridership, route, and stop data is collected either by Automatic Passenger Counter devices installed on most transit vehicles in the region, or by staff members who enter data into tablet computers.
This data is used by SANDAG, the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS), and North County Transit District (NCTD) for planning, marketing, modeling, and other decision-making purposes.
The two main purposes of the PCP are to generate data needed to satisfy National Transit Database reporting requirements, and to provide a detailed look at stop, trip, route, and operator level ridership. This data can be used to measure the performance and productivity of existing service.
