County Conversations: Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs)

Florida has 27 metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). While the name may imply these organizations perform a general planning function, they actually only plan for one thing: transportation. To improve highway planning across the nation, in 1962 Congress made local planning a condition of federal spending on transportation projects in urban areas through the Federal-Aid Highway Act. That law mandated “a continuing, comprehensive” transportation planning process carried out cooperatively by states and local communities. Metropolitan planning organizations are the venue where that “cooperative” planning takes place.  In this podcast, we talk with the current chairman of the MPO Advisory Council (MPOAC), Commissioner Mayra Uribe of Orange County, and Mark Reichert, MPOAC Executive Director, about the role of MPOs in Florida’s transportation planning process.