Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)
In 1962, the United States Congress passed legislation that mandated urban transportation planning as a condition for receiving federal transportation funding in any Urbanized Area (UZA) with a population greater than 50,000. The 1962 Act, along with federal initiatives in the 1970s which established the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), formed the basis for metropolitan transportation planning used in the present day.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) is the governor’s designee to administer the transportation planning process for each of the states MPOs. The MPO is the transportation policymaking organization made up of elected representatives from local government and transportation authorities responsible for all transportation planning activities in their urbanized area. MPOs were developed to ensure that existing and future Federal-aid expenditures for transportation projects and programs are based on the 3-C planning process. Any highway or transit project or program to be constructed or conducted within the Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA) and to be paid for with federal funds, must receive approval by the MPO as being a product of the continuing, comprehensive, and cooperative (3-C) transportation planning process before any federal funds can be expended.
ODOT currently coordinates planning efforts with four MPOs:
Regional Transportation Planning
In 1970, the governor established 11 sub-state planning districts. The boundaries of the sub-state planning districts were used to create 11 Councils of Governments (COG). The Oklahoma Association of Regional Councils (OARC) was incorporated in 1992 for the purpose of advancing regional issues outside the boundaries of the MPO Metropolitan Planning area.
Today, OARC continues to serve as the liaison for the rural transportation planning and coordinates with the states COGs to assist with public transportation for the Statewide Transportation Plan, Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, development of regional transportation plans, and other programs as needed and identified through the regional transportation planning process.
The 11 COGs currently designated for Oklahoma are as follows:
- Oklahoma Economic Development Authority (OEDA)
- Northern Oklahoma Development Authority (NODA)
- Grand Gateway Economic Development Association (GGEDA)
- South Western Oklahoma Development Authority (SWODA)
- Association of South Central Oklahoma (ASCOG)
- Southern Oklahoma Development Association (SODA)
- Central Oklahoma Economic Development District (COEDD)
- Eastern Oklahoma Development District (EODD)
- Kiamichi Economic Development District of Oklahoma (KEDDO)
- Association of Central Oklahoma Governments (ACOG)
- Indian Nations Council of Governments (INCOG)
