Governing large complex city-regions: The adoption of regional special purpose bodies for transportation and transit governance

Abstract

Continued patterns of urbanization are leading to ever larger and more complex urban regions. Regional institutions have arisen as a governance solution to address the problems of coordination across large, jurisdictionally fragmented urban regions. Regional special purpose bodies (RSPBs) are one such regional institutional arrangement. This paper examines this institutional phenomenon with a particular focus on transportation and transit bodies. It describes the extent of their adoption across Western Europe and North America and contrasts their development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.