MPO Roles in Supporting Local Smart Growth

Regional transportation planning bodies known as metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) increasingly use incentives to influence local development. These “smart growth grant programs” emblematize contemporary growth management’s emphasis on regional efforts and on carrots, not sticks, to nudge Sustainable Growth. Yet, researchers have largely overlooked incentive programs. This study will compare the experiences of MPOs with such programs in two states, California and Texas, each with different approaches to state-level policy on smart or sustainable urban growth. Using program and award-level data, the study will examine incentives work and what they accomplish. The work aims to illuminate how upstream incentives catalyze land use change downstream and how transportation planners, working through regional MPOs and COGs, might structure incentives to manage growth more sustainably.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $36000
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747135

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Performing Organizations:

  Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions (CM2)

  University of Texas at Austin
  Austin, TX  United States  78712
• Principal Investigators:

  Sciara, Gian Claudia

  Oden, Michael

• Start Date: 20210601
• Expected Completion Date: 20220831
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Councils of government; Incentives; Metropolitan planning organizations; Policy; Smart growth; Sustainable development; Urban growth
• Geographic Terms: California; Texas
• Subject Areas: Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01784124
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions (CM2)
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747135
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Oct 4 2021 10:29AM