United States Department of Transportation
i
Significance and Prospects of Transportation Planning at the Megaregional Scale
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2020-06-01
[PDF-489.48 KB]
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Edition:January 2018 – July 2019
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Abstract:Megaregions are defined as connected networks or clusters of metropolitan areas where the U.S. population and employment growth is increasingly concentrating. Fashioning strategies and new institutional arrangements to better manage growth in these tightly connected metropolitan areas has been identified a crucial challenge calling for new thinking and policies at national and subnational scales. This research explores the conceptual issues and policy salience of planning and project activities at the megaregional scale. This project has two main components: a literature and case study review of planning across metropolitan regions; and a survey of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) on inter-regional and megaregional collaboration. The review of the literature and case studies suggests that the megaregional scale does have some resonance, particularly in the area of transit infrastructure planning. However, in only a handful of cases did the partners in these initiatives strongly frame their activities around a megaregional space. Analyzing the results of a 2018 survey of 382 designated MPOs, we find support for the notion that MPO partnerships operating at the megaregional scale are somewhat widespread and involve MPOs along with other partners. A subset of common concerns—especially multi-modal freight, major transportation corridors, economic development, intercity rail service, and air quality—appears to motivate megaregional partnerships. MPOs were most likely to engage in megaregion-scale collaborations requiring relatively modest levels of organizational resources versus more substantive collaborative efforts to develop joint plans or coordinated project investments. At the same time, a minority of MPO respondents viewed megaregional scale collaborations as a high priority or as highly effective. For the majority of MPOs, it appears likely that the costs of such collaborations currently outweigh prospective benefits. Survey respondents identified increased staff funding, requiring state DOTs to address megaregional issues in statewide plans and facilitating and enabling inter-local agreements for megaregional planning as actions that would increase the effectiveness of megaregional planning. These actions will likely occur only if planning at the megaregional scale is embraced as a priority by federal and state policymakers.
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