Backgrounds of Establishing MPO

Backgrounds of Establishing MPO

When it comes to the US government policy for land transportation, US Department of Transportation (DOT) and fifty State Departments of Transportation, and three hundred and forty MPO’s are closely related. The MPO was the result of a special research program for urban transportation performed under the support from the transportation-related departments of several states in 1950s.

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  While in the 1970s metropolitan regional councils employed 75% of total number of MPO staffs, currently only 45% of MPO staffs are recruited by the conventional methods and the rest are employed by the planning council of each city, county, or city-county.
  

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  The size and number of MPO can be changed when its urbanized area is re-set according to the result of the census. The number of MPO’s were increased from 218 in 1972 to 340 in 1994.
  

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  Federal law stipulates that the governor of each state creates MPO’s with the heads of regional governments which are under the jurisdiction of MPO, and the role of the MPO is determined by the agreement between regional governments and state government.
  

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  The MPO consists of an operating committee which is made up of the personnel appointed by the related regional government and task forces. Each regional government appoints 4 commissioners, of which two commissioners are voting members and the other two are non- voting members. Besides, it is mandatory to establish a Technical Coordination Committee(TCC), which offers technical advice or administrative support.
  

Tasks of MPO

The main role of the MPO is the establishment of overall transport plans via the cooperation with the state government, regional governments, and transit operators.

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  Since 1962, the federal government has demanded the establishment and implementation of the metropolitan transport plan of MPO, and ISTEA of 1991 insisted on more specific plans such as composite transportation and air quality improvement. The MPO in certain areas with the population of more than 200,000 and serious air pollution and traffic problem is supposed to be tested by the federal government in the process of planning on the feasibility of it.
  

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  As a leader of the transportation plan as well as a consensus builder, the planning organization in urban areas with more than 200,000 people establishes a multimodal urban transportation plan in cooperation with the state government, environmental groups and transit operators and confirms it with the state government.
  

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  As the transportation plan for the urban area is composed of a twenty-year Long Range Plan(LRP) and Transportation Improvement Program, it is required to comply with the following in developing and setting the programs.
  

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  Because the Long Range Plan plays a significant role in the course of overall planning, it should be composed of the initiative for transportation improvement.
  
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  Transportation improvement should be multimodal and based on appropriate financing plans such as the one to attract private capital, and must be on the basis of attainable future objectives with special attention to the status quo of urban areas, resources, regional objectives, and air condition objectives.
  
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  A Transportation Improvement Program(TIP) should include all the transport projects in cooperation with the state government, environmental groups, and transit operators, and must be able to be financed by private capital, and should set the priority of investment and include projects for at least 3 years. The Long Range Plan and Transportation Improvement Program should develop strategies with regard to air quality conformity, in which fifteen comprehensive factors including enhancement of link between means of transportation, the reduction of traffic demand, the securing of mass transportation, efficient use and management of existing transport facilities, and the land use effects are to be considered.
  

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  As citizens’ participation of public organizations, interested parties, and the private sectors requires sufficient proactive public involvement, the opening of technical and policy information, the setting of chance to know about the important decisions, and the proactive and steady participation should be guaranteed.
  

Accordingly, MPO requires the ability of technical analysis for the sectors such as:

- the qualitative relation between transportation and air condition;

- the relation between transportation and land use;

- the comparison of efficiency among means of transportation;

- the contribution of transport improvement program to regional transport system.
In terms of the budget, the MPO is usually managed by the sharing expenses from regional governments and the federal subsidy.

13.3.2 The Case of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority(WAMATA) is an MPO established jointly by the three metropolitan states (Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C) and local governments under the advice of the central government. It takes responsibility for overall management of the bus and urban railway system. The bus service in the Washington metropolitan area had been managed by four private companies until the mid-1960s. It became state-owned by the acquisition of the private companies with financial support from federal government because of the need for efficient management, and now it has integrated service networks linking bus lines to rail services in the metropolitan area