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The nation's 385 metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) are required to maintain a comprehensive, continuing, and coordinated transportation planning and programming process. To perform these required tasks, operational funding is required to pay staff and other costs. This paper explores the sources of MPO funding and the disposal of those funds. The information contained was collected as a part of a larger survey that obtained responses from 133 MPOs from around the country. Federal assistance received through four different programs dominates the budgets of MPOs; however, all federal funds require a 20% match. Some states meet this match, but for many MPOs, funds must be raised locally. Seventy-eight percent of responding MPOs receive local money, which can be used to match federal funds, to pay for prohibited expenses, or to supplement the agency's budget. Methods for raising and expending local funds are discussed in detail. The requirements and characteristics of the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) are discussed. Responding MPOs expend 25% of their collective budget on consultants, while informational or pass-through funds account for about 17% of the UPWP.

State departments of transportation (DOTs) that provide the bulk of matching funds to local transit agencies for the purchase of new buses are duly concerned about the escalating costs of new buses and the lack of sufficient funds to keep up with bus replacement. An asset management strategy is presented for state DOTs to meet their long-term fleet needs. It is a two-stage process: ( a) allocating capital dollars for the dual purpose of purchasing new buses and rebuilding existing buses (taking into consideration the needs of all the constituent transit agencies) and ( b) distributing funds among the agencies in an equitable manner. The proposed management strategy includes two optimization models. Model 1 attempts to maximize the weighted fleet life of all the buses that are being purchased and rebuilt for a given peer group, within the constraints of a fixed budget. Model 2 is designed to maximize the remaining life of the entire peer group composed of the existing buses as well as those being replaced or rebuilt. The need for every single bus that is eligible for replacement is addressed in the model through either replacement or rebuilding. A comprehensive case study depicting a 7-year planning cycle for the entire fleet of medium-sized buses in the state of Michigan is used to demonstrate the strategy. A plan for evaluating the strategy is also presented and demonstrated. Results show that the strategy is viable and that it can be used for the designated purpose with fleet data that are currently available to the transit agencies. Even though the strategy is demonstrated with medium-sized buses, it will function efficiently with buses of different sizes and with a different number of agencies.

A methodology for prioritizing transportation funding in diverse rural environments is described based on experiences in the state of Montana. In 1999, the state of Montana redesigned its secondary highway-funding program. The amended statute allocated federal-aid and state matching funds by formula to each of Montana's five transportation districts and terminated a county-level suballocation that had been in place for more than 30 years. Instead of creating regional planning organizations or formal decision-making bodies such as "councils of governments," the Montana counties statutorily retained direct decision-making authority to set funding priorities, but at the district level. Through a cooperative process, the state of Montana and its 56 counties developed a goals achievement methodology for project prioritization that is responsive to a broad range of transportation needs and goals across all transportation districts of the state. This methodology is applicable for roads with very diverse characteristics and for decision makers with very different goals for the transportation systems under their jurisdiction. The methodology has the advantage of supporting a regional approach to funding prioritization. In addition, it has overcome the funds management problems that had occurred in the Montana secondary program with funds suballocated into 56 individual county accounts. Benefits and problems associated with direct suballocation of transportation resources were studied and the reformed Montana program was evaluated in terms of retaining the benefits and addressing the problems.

State departments of transportation that provide the bulk of matching funds to local transit agencies for the purchase of new buses are duly concerned about the escalating costs of new buses and the lack of sufficient funds to keep up with their replacement costs. An asset management framework is presented that can be used by state departments of transportation to ( a) allocate capital dollars for the dual purpose of purchasing new buses and rebuilding existing buses within the constraints of a fixed budget when the needs of all constituent agencies in a peer group are considered and ( b) distribute funds among the agencies equitably. The proposed framework includes two optimization models. Model 1 attempts to maximize the weighted fleet life of all the buses being purchased and rebuilt for a given peer group within the constraints of a fixed budget. Model 2 is designed to maximize the remaining life of the entire peer group, including the existing buses and those being replaced or rebuilt. Case studies presented to demonstrate the application of the models show that the framework is viable and can be used for the designated purpose with fleet data currently available from transit agencies. Further research on testing the framework is recommended to ensure its applicability under different sets of circumstances.