Metropolitan Planning Organizations: Building America's Roads

Metropolitan Planning Organizations, or MPOs, are government agencies established for the sole purpose of planning transportation infrastructure. These agencies are formed by the local governments in each metro area, and its activities are governed by a board of local elected officials from the constituent local governments. Full-time, professional staff members analyze data, project future infrastructure needs, and prioritize available funding to meet those needs. The final approval of all plans and financial expenditure must be given from the board of elected officials. All MPOs draft plans for roads, pedestrian/bicycle facilities, and transport for the disabled. However, some MPOs take on other tasks, such as planning administering public transportation systems, airports, seaports, and passenger rail systems.

Building roads has traditionally been done by states-the Federal Government didn't get involved until the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1962, which required that all urban areas with more than 50,000 people should prepare plans for spending transportation dollars on a regional basis. This meant that local governments needed to form partnerships with each other to develop a transportation network. These interlocal agreements spawned the MPO we know today.

As the nation grew, more urbanized areas passed the 50,000 person threshold required by the Federal government. The number of MPOs grew along with the population, increasing from 225 agencies in 1962 to 385 in 2005. MPOs are free to adopt a variety of names for themselves. Some common names are Transportation Council, Transportation Study, or simply Metropolitan Planning Organization. About half of MPOs are co-housed or co-staffed by the region's Council of Governments (COG). MPO's receive their operating funds by taking 1.25% of the total dollar amount spent on infrastructure in their region.

Congress pulled together all of the existing highway and transit programs into one piece of legislation called the Intermodal Surface Transportation Equity Act (ISTEA) in 1991. The Act maintained the role of MPOs and added new duties and requirements on the planning process. ISTEA has been reauthorized by Congress twice. The most recent transportation act is called the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act- a Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). SAFETEA-LU was passed in 2005, and continues to grant MPOs the sole authority to plan for transportation infrastructure in urban areas. Rural areas are controlled by the state Department of Transportation.

MPOs plan for transportation infrastructure using the "three C principles": continuing, coordinated, and comprehensive. These guiding principles make their plans as inclusive and far-reaching as possible. MPOs spend a considerable amount of time working with municipalities and counties that have land use decision-making authority. This ensures that transportation infrastructure will be built in areas that are forecast to grow in the future. Further, MPOs solicit input from the general public through workshops, surveys, and open government proceedings. MPOs also must coordinate with other government agencies like environmental protection, historic preservation, and housing to ensure that infrastructure does not adversely affect the efforts of those groups.

The basis of all MPO activities is the Metropolitan Transportation Plan sometimes called a Long-Range Transportation Plan. These documents visualize the MPO's region up to 20 years into the future. This 20-year plan spawns more detailed plans that deal with specific issues like evacuations, special events, or public transit feasibility studies. A short-term list of funded projects is created every 5 years called a Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). TIPs identify projects that are due for new construction, facility upgrade, or regular maintenance. Depending on the region, the MPO may also draft plans for non-motorized transportation, public transit, air quality, freight, or highway safety.