What is the Oregon MPO Consortium and what does it do?
The Oregon MPO Consortium was formed on May 25, 2005, as a forum for Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to work together on matters of mutual interest and statewide significance. Matters of mutual and statewide interest include:

• the growing complexity of transportation planning in Oregon’s rapidly growing
  metropolitan regions
• the evolving role of the State of Oregon in making transportation investments in
  these areas
• the connection between land use and transportation that drives private investment
  in our metropolitan regions
• innovative approaches for meeting the increasing demands of a modern
  transportation system

Oregon currently has six MPOs covering the metropolitan areas of Portland, Salem- Keizer, Corvallis, Eugene-Springfield, Medford-Ashland, and Bend. Each MPO has two representatives on the Oregon MPO Consortium. Oregon is likely to see more MPOs in the near future as more cities reach a population of 50,000.

What is an MPO and why do we have them?
Metropolitan Planning Organizations grew out of a need to manage growing federal investments in transportation that came on the heels of the Federal-Aid Highway Act. The Act, signed by President Eisenhower on June 29, 1956, authorized the federal government to pay 90% of the cost of the Interstate Highway system. The Federal-Aid Highways Act of 1962 added a transportation planning requirement: As a condition for receiving federal transportation funding, urban areas with populations of 50,000 or more were to engage in “continuing, comprehensive, and cooperative” transportation planning.

This planning requirement coupled with a 1965 amendment to an earlier Housing and Urban Development Act authorized grants made to “…organizations composed of public officials…representative of political jurisdictions with the metropolitan or urban region…for the purposes of comprehensive planning” provided the final impetus for formation of regional planning organizations through councils of governments, which formed the earliest MPOs. Many MPOs remain in councils of governments; others are housed in city or county organizations, and some are free standing.

OMPOC’s Greater Regions Project
Over the past several years, OMPOC has worked to create a new definition of Oregon’s metropolitan areas that is based on travelsheds, not simply political boundaries. This approach helps frame the economic and travel relationships that define our regions, and often span formal boundaries, including urban growth boundaries. The purpose of the Greater Regions project is to bring more voices to the conversation as we work to plan the future of Oregon’s metropolitan areas.

The following materials describe OMPOC’s Greater Regions work for four major subareas:

• North Willamette Valley, which includes the Portland and Salem regions
• Southern Willamette Valley, which extends from Corvallis and Albany to the Eugene-Springfield region
• Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon, extending from Ashland to Grants Pass
• Central Oregon area extending from Bend to Madras

For each subarea, these materials provide a snapshot of regional land use, transportation and economic issues, and each publication include maps that show the travelshed for the subarea. The maps are also provided as separate downloads (all in PDF format):

North Willamette Valley: Overview | Region Daily Trip Map
Southern Willamette Valley: Overview | Region Daily Trip Map
Rogue Valley: Overview | Region Daily Trip Map
Greater Bend Region: Overview | Region Daily Trip Map