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The five Colorado MPOs are the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), Grand Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization (GVMPO), North Front Range Transportation and Air Quality Planning Council (NFRMPO), Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments (PPACG), and Pueblo Area Council of Governments (PACOG). The MPOs are the forums for cooperative transportation decision-making in metropolitan areas. Metropolitan planning grant funds are apportioned by FHWA and FTA to CDOT annually. CDOT then distributes the funds proportionally to the MPOs. Planning funds are used by MPOs to carry out the metropolitan
planning functions (23 USC Section 134 and 49 USC 5303)
Additionally, three of the five MPOs, DRCOG, NFRMPO, and PPACG, are designated Transportation Management Areas (TMAs). A TMA is defined as having a population of 200,000 or more residents. The three TMAs are eligible for Federal Surface Transportation Program-Metropolitan (STP-M) funds and Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) funds. STP-M funding is covered in Section 1 and CMAQ funding is discussed in Section 4 of this manual. All five MPOs are eligible for Federal Transportation Enhancement (TE) funding, also discussed in Section 1.