Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO) are entities designated by federal law with the lead responsibility for developing the area's transportation plans and coordinating the transportation planning process.  All urban areas over 50,000 in population are required to have an MPO if the agencies spend Federal money on transportation improvements. 

The transportation planning process includes making informed predictions about future transportation needs, investigating and assessing alternative actions for meeting those needs, and making recommendations about which course of action to pursue.  The information generated by this process is used by decision-makers to select transportation policies and programs from the range of alternatives.

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