Having watched this discussion, I feel I can add a little bit. There is a collection of "agencies" with different titles and different functions that GENERALLY fall into this category. COG (council of governments), TPO (transportation planning organization), RPO (regional planning organization), RPA (regional planning authority), TPA (transportation planning authority), MPO (municipal planning organization), and more. These are organized for various purposes and have varying functions, and Anthony is right: few citizens would even vaguely recognize their existence, let alone their function. And of course their function varies widely. There may well be specific rules (varying by state) for how each of these operate, though I am not familiar with any of that.
In at least some states, these agencies form once the population of a contiguous area reaches a threshold. There is often some funding flowing to the agencies as a result. Their boundaries can cross many jurisdictional boundaries. They cross state lines, county lines, township lines, and city lines. In denser population areas, they often butt up against one another. In more rural regions, there are significant gaps between them. Their ability to actually control things varies. As an example, our local TPO (actually called a Coordinating Council) has an active transportation plan that shows a 4-foot paved shoulder on a county road that is popular with bicyclists. The county transportation plan shows the same thing. But the road commission, whose members are appointed by the county board but are otherwise essentially independent (somewhat analogous to judges appointed for life), would not have added the 4-foot shoulders to the road without extra money contributed by the county, affected townships, and citizen donations. The TPO plan was of interest to the road commission and nothing more. I'll leave it to others as to whether the boundaries of the agencies should be mapped, but I thought it would be useful to help in understanding them. Kerry Irons Adventure Cycling Association -----Original Message----- From: Anthony Costanzo <acjame...@gmail.com> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2020 1:15 AM To: OpenStreetMap talk-us list <talk-us@openstreetmap.org> Subject: Re: [Talk-us] admin_level and COGs, MPOs, SPDs, Home Rule Going to chime in here as someone who has lived the majority of his life in CT. I am quite familiar with CT's 8 counties and their geographic forms. But I only have a vague idea what a COG is and couldn't have told you offhand anything about where the boundaries between them are. I support the idea that counties in CT should be tagged the same as they are in other states. On the most basic level, this is simply consistent - why should CT be tagged differently than elsewhere? But even on a more nuanced level... the average person isn't concerned about what government functions are or aren't associated with a county. CT's counties have no associated government (anymore) but they are still commonly used for statistical purposes and they still have cultural relevance as well - you will hear references in casual conversations to Fairfield and Litchfield counties. Meanwhile ask any Connecticutter what COG they live in and most of them will probably answer "what's a COG". Great current example of this, look at the state's reporting on covid cases: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Coronavirus/CTDPHCOVID19summary5132020.pdf?la=en Page 2 shows current hospitalizations by county. No reference to COGs to be found. Thus, counties should retain their admin level tags, and COGs should be tagged less prominently. _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
