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DRAFT 2010-2013 STATEWIDE TRANSPORTATION IlVIPROVEMENT PROGRAM <br />Table 2 -Metropolitan Planning Organizations in Oregon <br />MPO Jurisdictions/A encies <br />Bend Cit of Bend, Deschutes Coun <br /> Lane County, Lane Transit, cities of Eugene, Springfield and Coburg, <br />Central Lane Lane Council of Governments COG <br /> Benton County, cities of Corvallis and Philomath, Corvallis Transit Dis- <br />Corvallis Area trict, Cascades West COG <br /> Metro, Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, all incorpo- <br />Metro ratedcities in Portland Metro area, Tri-Met, SMART <br /> Jackson County, cities of Ashland, Central Point, Eagle Point, Medford, <br />Rogue Valley Phoenix and Talent, Rogue Valley Transportation District, Rogue Valley <br /> COG <br /> Marion and Polk counties, cities of Salem, Keizer and Turner, Salem <br />Salem-Keizer Area Transit District, Mid-Willamette Valle COG <br />METROPOLITAN PLANNING <br />ORGANIZATIONS <br />What is an MPO? <br />A significant portion of the state's transpor- <br />tation investment is in urban areas where <br />transportation system improvements are <br />planned and programmed by Metropolitan <br />Planning Organizations. An MPO is a feder- <br />ally-designated transportation planning body <br />for an urbanized area with a resident popula- <br />tion over 50,000. The MPO is responsible <br />for developing long-range transportation <br />plans for that area. Oregon currently has six <br />MPOs. The MPOs and the jurisdictions and <br />agencies operating within them are listed in <br />Table 2 above.4 MPOs have two important <br />responsibilities. They develop long-range <br />plans for the metropolitan area that are par- <br />allel in scope and scale to a transportation <br />system plan, but must adhere to strict federal <br />rules about fiscal limitations on planned im- <br />provements and, in some areas, address spe- <br />cial air quality regulations. Second, the <br />MPOs decide on system investment priori- <br />ties by programming the projects to fund in <br />the next four years, creating a local transpor- <br />tation improvement program. <br />Metropolitan Transportation Imurove- <br />ment Programs <br />By federal regulation, each MPO must pro- <br />duce its own Metropolitan Transportation <br />Improvement Program that identifies <br />planned transportation system improvements <br />for the same time period as the STIP. The <br />STIP must include all the projects in each <br />MTIP, either individually or by reference. <br />Oregon's STIP lists each MPO project ex- <br />actly as it appears in the MTIP. <br />By federal law, large MPOs called Trans- <br />portation Management Areas (TMAs), <br />whose resident population exceeds 200,000, <br />receive a share of the state's federal trans- <br />portation allocation based on a formula. <br />Three Oregon MPOs qualify as TMAs: <br />Eugene/Springfield, Portland Metro, and Sa- <br />lem/Keizer. These areas decide on their <br />own how to spend their federal allocation <br />and publish the projects in their MTIP. <br />ODOT participates in the development of <br />these regional MTIPs. Some of the projects <br />in these MTIPs are included at ODOT's re- <br />a The City of Rainier and Columbia County techni- <br />cally are in the MPO planning boundary for Long- <br />view/Kelso, Washington, but no Oregon system im- <br />provements are affected by this designation other <br />than improvements to the US 30/SR 411 bridge. <br />Page 12 <br />