Urban Areas Underrepresented on Transportation Planning Boards
Metropolitan Planning Organizations are responsible for implementing different parts of federal transportation law including the creation of regional transportation plans. A recent study published by The Brookings Institution, entitled Inherent Bias?, reports that boards of Metropolitan Planning Organizations such as SCAG (Southern California Association of Governments) are typically skewed toward suburban interests. The report contends that this is largely the result of a voting structure that does not account for a population’s locale—whether urban or suburban.
The Brookings Institution reports that SCAG’s current voting structure, which is not weighted in terms of jurisdiction population, produces 49% urban votes and 50% suburban votes. If these votes were weighted to reflect the population size of each jurisdiction represented, 80% of the votes would represent urban areas and 19% of the votes would represent suburban areas. The Brookings Institution reports that this 31% difference in urban representation indicates that SCAG’s voting structure is imbalanced in terms of population size and geographic representation.
This urban/suburban mismatch in representation has real consequences for the policies and infrastructure provided in our communities. For example, another recent study found that such a mismatch is correlated with the allocation of transportation funds for highways and public transportation.
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