As part of CMAP’s Congestion Management Process, staff have compiled performance measures for the regional freeways from 2010. The performance measures include a travel time index, a planning time index, and congested hours.

The travel time index is a measure of average congestion and indicates the average extra travel time required during peak period congestion. Travel time index is a ratio of the average peak-period travel time compared to the free-flow travel time. For example, a value of 1.20 means that average peak travel times are 20 percent longer than free-flow travel times.

The planning time index is a measure of reliability and is defined as the ratio of the total time needed to ensure a 95 percent on-time arrival to the free-flow travel time. For example, a value of 1.4 means that, to arrive on-time 95 percent of the time, a traveler should budget an additional 8 minutes for a trip that takes 20 minutes during off-peak, free-flow conditions.

Congested hours are an indication of how many hours per day a facility is congested. Technically, "congested hours" are defined as the average number of hours in which at least 20 percent of the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on the instrumented segment is congested. For this measure, congestion is defined to occur when link speeds are less than 50 mph.