ABSTRACT
The construction of the US Interstate Highway System following passage of the 1956 National Defense and Interstate Highway Act marked a brief period of time when transportation planning was top-down, centralized, focused on large infrastructure projects, and largely severed from place-based political pressures. The centralized planning of the interstate highways, with routes sited with single-minded attention to mobility and with little consideration of land use, was a dramatic departure from earlier practices. Senate Bill 375, which requires metropolitan planning organizations to develop sustainable communities strategies (SCS) that will document progress toward reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, will provide an additional and complementary framework for canvassing, publicizing, and encouraging local, context-sensitive transportation and land-use planning. This chapter traces the evolution of Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) roles and responsibilities in response to federal and state laws as well as significant planning issues.
