America 2050

On February 20 – 22, Regional Plan Association and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy convened 32 transportation, economic development and regional planning practitioners to discuss the future of America’s surface transportation policy at the Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. 

The goal of the roundtable was to develop a strategy for national surface transportation policy in America that can effectively deal with long term trends, such as rapid population growth, demographic change, emerging megaregions, climate change and rising international trade and goods movement. Three briefing papers were prepared in advance of the roundtable on: vision, finance, and legislative strategy, respectively. The papers can be downloaded below. Notes and a summary of the roundtable will be available in the coming weeks on this website.

For Download:

Michael D. Meyer, “Toward a Vision for the Nation’s Surface Transportation System: Policies to Transcend Boundaries and Transition to a New Era”

Gary Maring, “Future Financing Options to Meet Highway and Transit Needs.”

Mortimer L. Downey III, “Legislative Considerations for Long Term Policy Change.”

* The views expressed in the papers do not necessarily reflect those of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

On February 9 Regional Plan Association and the Policy Research Institute for the Region of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School held a luncheon forum for regional business leaders and scholars on "The Economic Geography of Megaregions."

The forum featured presentations by economists Saskia Sassen of the University of Chicago and Edward Glaeser of Harvard University, and responses by Paul Krugman of Princeton University and Kip Bergstrom of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council.

The presenters and discussants attempted to answer the questions:
o Can megaregion-scale agglomerations be encouraged?
o What are the advantages of doing so?
o What are the public policies and infrastructure investments to encourage agglomeration at the megaregion scale?

The papers from the forum can be downloaded here from the Policy Research Institute for the Region website.

11/20/07: The complete conference papers are now available online on PRIOR's website.

Image: Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

Last October and November Regional Plan Association and the Penn Institute for Urban Research convened the Greater Philadelphia-New York Leadership Exchange to promote collaboration between the two regions around common transportation, economic and land use challenges. The Leadership Exchange was sponsored by the William Pen Foundation and was part of ongoing research by the Regional Plan Association to examine the Northeast Megaregion and its mobility needs, economic competitiveness and growth concerns. The two meetings, held in Philadelphia and New York City highlighted topics such as Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, the role of anchor institutions in economic development, and wireless internet initiatives in center cities.

The Leadership Exchange was the first step in a multiyear project to build a “Northeast Network” of business and civic leaders from Boston to Washington to advocate for investments and policies to sustain the economic competitiveness, sustainability and quality of life if the Northeast in the 21st Century. The Leadership Exchange will be followed by a “Northeast Climate and Competitiveness Summit” on March 2 at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, featuring roundtable meetings on Northeast Corridor Mobility, Energy and Emissions, and Regional Landscape and Smart Growth.

Notes from the two Leadership Exchange Meetings can be downloaded here.

Click here for notes from the Philadelphia meeting.

Click here for notes from the New York City meeting.  

This report, recently released by planning faculty at the University of Michigan asks three main questions: Why plan for megaregions? What are appropriate methods for planning at the megaregion scale? And when is the megaregion a useful scale for policy planning?

Click here to download the report.

The American Planning Association's National Conference this April 14-18, 2007 in Philadelphia will include a special track on, "Megaregions, Sustainability and Transportation," featuring multiple sessions planned by or including America 2050 project partners.

Some of the highlights inlcude sessions on: Megaregions and a National Transportation Agenda; Building Economic Synergies in Megaregions; and Cross-Border Challenges in International Megaregions. Several sessions will focus on specific areas of the country, such as: Booming Sunbelt Megaregions and Reimagining the Midwest Megaregion. 

For more information on the APA National Conference click here.

To explore the sessions in the Megaregions track on the APA website, visit this link, then select the Track "Megaregions, Sustainability and Transportation" from the pull down menu and leave "all" in the Topic field.