The metropolitan planning organization role in the 1980s

Abstract

A new study by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations focuses on the adaptions in transit services, finances, institutions, and policy processes occasioned by current financial stress at all levels of government and by the devolution of national responsibilities to the state and local governments. This study found, in part, that (1) most metropolitan transportation planning organizations now are locally governed and staffed. (2) their planning is becoming increasingly isolated, less comprehensive, and shorter range. (3) some such organizations are experiencing strong pressure to decentralize or subregionalize, and (4) the desire for these organizations to exercise more effective areawide leadership is not matched with local approval of greater powers for them. The study concludes that informal coordination techniques or new powers granted by state legislatures are the two most likely facilitators of improved metropolitan transportation leadership in the 1980s. Copyright © 1984 John Wiley & Sons Ltd