ABSTRACT
Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) were established as part of the FederalAid Highway Act of 1962 that gave these organizations a role in regional transportation planning for metropolitan areas with populations of fi fty thousand people or more. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Effi ciency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and the ensuing Transportation Effi ciency Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) extended and enhanced the responsibilities of MPOs for regional transportation planning. The 2005 reauthorized federal transportation legislation (SAFETEA-LU), although controversial at times, offered no substantive changes in how MPOs perform transportation planning. From the beginning, MPOs have played a role in transportation planning and, through legislation, continue to have an impact on regional governance. This chapter will discuss the changing role of MPOs in transportation planning. It reviews the history of MPOs, the roles that MPOs play in metropolitan transportation planning as well as approaches used by MPOs as they work with local, state, federal and non-governmental partners. This chapter also reviews the research concerning the performance of MPOs since the 1991 ISTEA legislation to the present.
