New Urban Areas: A Transit Guidance Brief

After each decennial census, a list of urban areas is published. Urban areas are densely populated areas with more than 50,000 persons. When a region becomes an urban area, it becomes eligible for new types of federal transportation funding. The most important federal funding program— and the largest change driver—is the Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula Grants. As funding increases, oversight and regulatory requirements associated with urban transit service can become complex. This digest offers a variety of resources—along with original research—for newly constituted urban areas that will be offering transit service for the first time, or converting from rural to urban fixed-route service. The digest begins with an overview of the Census, a definition of urban areas, and definitions of transit administration. The digest continues with an overview of federal transit policy. In this section, federal transit funding programs are analyzed for their applicability to small urban areas. The digest also discusses the governance structures required to receive federal funding. Most new requirements are enforced during the triennial review. The Federal Transit Administration conducts triennial reviews with all urban transit providers receiving federal grants to evaluate compliance with 24 specific subject areas. The digest goes into detail on meeting the requirements of most of the triennial review areas. Several key steps to starting a new urban transit operation are discussed, and a checklist of suggested start-up steps for new urban transit operators is included. A series of three case studies also are included in this digest. These case studies examine the start-up of urban transit service, funding issues, and administrative and organizational challenges.