A new federally-mandated transportation planning process has been in place in the United States for six years. It calls for metropolitan areas to undertake regional studies that identify priority corridors for subsequent detailed analysis, called major investment studies (MISs). Key MIS characteristics are multi-modal planning, mandatory interagency collaboration, strong public involvement, options for complying with federal environmental regulations, and transportation linkages with air quality and land use. Overall, these provisions have been extremely transit- and environmentally-friendly and, thus, are of high potential interest to CODATU conference participants. Some have fallen short of expectations but others have wildly exceeded them. This paper focuses on selected features that have the highest applicability in other countries of the world. Collectively, the MIS procedures represent a bold experiment to improve local planning and decision-making. Like many innovations, there are opponents who prefer the status quo and, therefore, the future of the MIS process is uncertain.
Abstract