Metropolitan Planning Organizations & Transportation Planning

Federal law requires state and local governments to designate a metropolitan planning organisation (MPO) in each urbanised area with a population of 50,000 or more to help plan surface transportation infrastructure and services. There are currently 381 MPOs nation-wide. Despite some strengthening of their authority over the years, MPOs have generally remained subordinate to state departments of transportation (DOTs) in the planning and selecting ("programming") of projects using federal surface transportation funds. Moreover, it can be argued that at the metropolitan level, MPOs are subordinate to local governments that own and operate many elements of the transportation system, and also control land use planning and zoning. This book discusses the authority of MPOs to plan and program funds; representation and participation in MPOs; MPO funding and technical capacity and implementation of liveability initiatives.