New Guide Provides Advice for Successful Regional Planning

Angie Schmitt shares news of a new guide for metropolitan planning organizations, released by Transportation or America, called "The Innovative MPO."

Schmitt introduces the need of such a guide by describing a good MPO/bad MPO dichotomy found around the country: "If you look at healthy, growing regions like Minneapolis and Salt Lake City, they tend to have more enlightened regional planning agencies. Still, there’s a lot of room for improvement. Many MPOs — and their close cousins, councils of government, or COGs — have been slow to adapt to the 21st century, with its new and more complicated set of transportation demands that extends far beyond highway construction."

The article goes on to share five techniques employed by the best MPOs. They include: "Don’t limit the job to managing congestion," "Concentrate investments in regionally important areas," and "Conduct meaningful public engagement."