Major Investment Studies—Hit or MIS?: Southern California Experience

The major investment study (MIS) formally came into being with passage of the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. Federal, state, metropolitan planning organizations (MPO), and local regulations and guidelines say little about how sponsoring agencies should conduct a MIS. The MPO guidelines even state that “no one size fits all.” But because there are few specific requirements of the MIS process, a lot can be learned from MISs that have been completed. Three MISs were undertaken recently in Southern California: The Corridor (Orange County CenterLine), the Interstate 5 Corridor, and the State Route 22/West Orange County Connection Major Investment Studies. Lessons learned from these three MISs include the following: (a) The process needs to begin with the identification of problems, not solutions; (b) it is important to define the roles of the various participating agencies early in the process; (c) integrating the planning and environmental-analysis processes can simplify the processes and reduce redundancy; (d) criteria must be relevant to the study area and should differentiate between the alternatives; and (e) outreach should focus on opinion setters and decision makers to gain worthwhile input and to build consensus. By applying the lessons learned in these three MISs, future corridor studies might achieve the successes and avoid the failures illustrated by these three case studies.