Federal Transportation Policy and the Role of Metropolitan Planning Organizations in California

sections of text, not to exceed three paragraphs, to be quoted without written permission, provided that full attribution is given to the source and the above copyright notice is included. Foreword The reauthorization of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) in 1997 raises three issues of great importance to California—how many dollars will the state receive from future transportation programs? Who will pay the cost? And what level of government will distribute the benefits? In this report, Federal Transportation Policy and the Role of Metropolitan Planning Organizations in California, Paul Lewis and Mary Sprague focus on the third issue—the role metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) have played in setting project priorities under the current transportation legislation. The authors conclude that metropolitan-level decisionmaking generates a distinctly different set of priorities than found at either the state or local level, and that the role of MPOs should be considered carefully when reauthorization of ISTEA takes place in Washington later this year.