New research<\/a> from Northeastern University studies how state, regional and local officials in California work together toward emissions and other climate-focused targets. The research concludes that ambitious climate goals alone are not enough to reduce traffic-related emissions, and better collaboration between different levels of government is essential to reduce pollution.<\/p>\n Serena Alexander<\/a>, an associate professor of public policy and urban affairs as well as civil and environmental engineering who co-authored the study, says that \u201cCalifornia is a good example because it represents one of the most ambitious multi-level climate governance experiments\u201d in the US, especially when it comes to traffic mitigation to reduce greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n Specifically, the study analyzed five regional metropolitan areas made up of 25 local communities \u2014 five per regional area, to explore the kinds of collaboration at play between organizations of different scales, between the local communities and the regional planning bodies.<\/p>\n The MPOs make up one of three levels of political decision-making, Alexander says, with the state, which sets the broadest action plans and goals, and local communities, which include cities and towns of every size, making up the other two decision-making entities. Ideally, all three levels interact with each other toward shared goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n But given differences between metropolitan areas \u2014 and their corresponding planning organizations \u2014 this collaboration is not always smooth or possible. Alexander says that during the team\u2019s research, several barriers appeared that inhibited collaboration between the regional planning bodies and the local cities and towns.<\/p>\n As an example, Southern California\u2019s MPO contains just one massive city: Los Angeles. The city houses nearly 4 million people<\/a> while dozens of smaller communities depend on the city for funding. These smaller communities also, however, maintain their own autonomy from their huge neighbor, occasionally making it difficult for officials in L.A. to coordinate with those in the surrounding communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n In contrast, the Bay Area group has three very large cities \u2014 Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose \u2014 that have managed to work in concert with one another to develop interlocking traffic reduction strategies. In that region, Alexander notes, it has been easier to create strategies that cross municipal boundaries because the three large cities largely work in concert and provide a model for other, smaller communities to follow.<\/p>\n When the team dug deeper into the five regional areas of their study, they found that perhaps the biggest block is the fact that while regional plans are often sweeping and provide large-scale goals, those regions can\u2019t enforce the cooperation of local communities, Alexander says. If a suburb doesn\u2019t want to participate in the wider region\u2019s program, it doesn\u2019t have to. She notes that the state and regional planning groups can do little more than provide incentives.<\/p>\n That said, local community plans can sometimes be more ambitious than the regional plans. Local governments can better tailor their plans to their community, Alexander says. While the wider regions develop plans around \u201cthings like modeling, forecasting, sharing best practices, focusing on big infrastructure investment,\u201d local communities are the ones ultimately putting the work into practice, she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n For instance,the city of Santa Monica, in the Southern California region, has created dynamic parking rates \u201cto reshape how residents and developers think about driving,\u201d while Fremont, in the Bay Area, incorporated electric vehicle chargers into its zoning codes, according to the study.<\/p>\n Another barrier that emerged was that while regional plans often provide technical models and multi-year infrastructure improvements, local-level governments often operate on shorter timelines due to shorter political cycles and the shifting, immediate concerns of their constituency.<\/p>\n But there aren\u2019t only obstacles, Alexander says. She and her co-author also identified some of the strategies that have been successful within California\u2019s five metropolitan regions. Things work best, she says, when the regional planners and local communities double down on what they\u2019re best at, like managing data, providing an all-encompassing climate action vision \u201cand making sure that the smaller jurisdictions within the region have the capacity, have the know-how, to actually develop and implement climate action plans.\u201d<\/p>\n Smaller communities especially need this additional support from the larger regional bodies, she says, which can come in the form of funding, incentives or simply aid in developing local implementation strategies.<\/p>\n All of this complexity plays into the necessity for regional coordination. For instance, Alexander notes, \u201cyou can\u2019t plan for transit locally.\u201d Because public transit crosses municipal borders, those cities have to cooperate. Regional planning that wants to create large public transit corridors needs to accommodate a diverse array of local groups\u2019 interests.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the most important take away is that decarbonizing transportation requires both coordination and autonomy and innovation,\u201d but no one single strategy will provide a silver bullet, Alexander says. Neither bike lanes, electric vehicles or increased walking paths necessarily mean a reduction in traffic and greenhouse gases. It\u2019s the alignment of all these efforts, she says, that could really drive transformative change.<\/p>\n Noah Lloyd is the assistant editor for research at Northeastern Global News and NGN Research. Email him at n.lloyd@northeastern.edu<\/a>. Follow him on X\/Twitter at @noahghola<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Serena](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Serena-Alexander.jpg\")
01\/23\/24 \u2013 BOSTON, MA. \u2013 Serena Alexander, associate professor with a joint appointment in the schools of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Public Policy and Urban Affairs, poses for a portrait on Jan. 23, 2024. Photo by Matthew Modoono\/Northeastern University<\/p>\n