Transportation planners face a challenge that is becoming more complicated every year. We have access to more information than ever before but turning that information into useful insight remains surprisingly difficult. Transportation data may live in one system, land use information in another, demographic data somewhere else and extreme weather information in yet another. Different agencies collect information for different purposes, using different formats and standards.  Before a planner can begin answering a complex question, significant time may be spent simply locating, reconciling and interpreting the underlying information. At the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization, that challenge led us to begin experimenting with a different approach. Could artificial intelligence help planners bring information together more efficiently, while keeping professional judgment, public accountability and human decision-making firmly at the center of the planning process? That question ultimately led to SMART METRO, an AI-enabled platform we have been developing and testing with support from a $2 million U.S. Department of Transportation Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation Stage 1 Grant. But perhaps more important than the technology itself is what the process has taught us about the opportunities, and limitations, of using AI in transportation planning. 

The Hard Part Isn’t Necessarily the AI 

One of the most important lessons from developing SMART METRO is that technology cannot compensate for fragmented or inconsistent data. Our prototype brings together more than 140 datasets, along with planning documents and other information covering transportation, housing, safety, land use, demographics and environmental conditions. Getting those sources to work together requires more than connecting databases. Agencies collect and maintain data differently. Definitions may vary. Information may be updated on different schedules. Data ownership and access can introduce additional complications. That makes partnership essential. Developing and testing the platform required us to work with local governments, universities, private-sector partners and transportation agencies. Those relationships helped us understand not only what information was available, but also how it was created, maintained and used.  

Testing the Technology on Real Planning Challenges 

We tested SMART METRO using two real planning use cases in Broward County. The first focused on Historic Miramar, where the City of Miramar updated its comprehensive plan to allow higher density and spur investment in a redevelopment area covering more than three square miles. Planners needed to understand how redevelopment could affect adjacent roadways and transit, and how future flooding could affect the development. Traditionally, those questions required transportation, land use and flood-risk information to be pulled from disconnected systems. SMART METRO identified roadway segments projected to carry the highest traffic volumes after redevelopment and pinpointed flood zones and arterial roads that could be affected, showing where transportation vulnerabilities and flood exposure overlap. The second use case examined development coordination across Broward. We wanted to understand how rezoning decisions interact with transportation infrastructure and flood risk. SMART METRO enabled planners to evaluate where housing could be both resilient to flooding and well served by planned premium transit, and how zoning changes near transit could affect residential prices. 

AI Can Find Information. People Still Have to Make Decisions. 

Another lesson has been equally important: the value of AI in transportation planning is not replacing professional expertise. It is helping professionals use their expertise more effectively. Our testing reinforced that distinction. Broward MPO users and University of Florida researchers identified failed prompts, mismatched legends and confusing outputs during User Acceptance Testing. Human-in-the-Loop training allows planners to correct and refine the AI’s responses over time. AI can help identify patterns, retrieve information, connect datasets and accelerate analysis. It cannot determine what a community values. It cannot balance competing community priorities, build consensus among stakeholders or assume responsibility for how public dollars are invested. Those responsibilities remain human. 

SMART METRO is a planning assistant, not a decision-maker. It can broaden what a planner can see and how quickly alternatives can be tested, but interpreting flood risk, weighing transit and housing priorities and making final recommendations remain matters of professional planning judgment. During our initial testing, we estimate that bringing data collection, analysis, mapping and reporting into a more integrated workflow reduced planning time by approximately 50 percent in the use cases we evaluated. That is meaningful, particularly for public agencies operating with limited staff and resources. But time savings may not ultimately be the most interesting outcome.  

Efficiency Is Only Part of the Opportunity 

Previously, answering a question about redevelopment, congestion and flood exposure required planners to manually assemble data from disconnected systems. With SMART METRO, a planner can ask which arterial roadways in Miramar could be impacted by three feet of flooding and receive an answer in an average of about 41 seconds, with map layers and supporting analytics. When information that previously existed in separate systems becomes easier to examine together, planners can begin exploring relationships they might not otherwise have had the time or ability to investigate.   

We Are Still Learning Where the Technology Works, and Where It Doesn’t 

It is also important to acknowledge that this technology is evolving. Our first phase was a prototype, and the testing process identified both capabilities and areas requiring further development. AI-enabled tools can be particularly useful when they are asked to retrieve, organize and examine information across large datasets. Their usefulness depends heavily, however, on the quality and consistency of the underlying data and on having professionals who can evaluate the results. 

That means output must be validated. Assumptions must be questioned. Data sources must be understood. And planners must know when the technology provides useful analysis and when traditional methods or additional professional review are required. Those guardrails become even more important as AI tools become easier to use. The goal should not be to insert AI into every planning function. It should be to identify the places where technology can genuinely improve the planning process while maintaining transparency, security and professional accountability. 

 What This Could Mean for Other MPOs 

Our conversations with metropolitan planning organizations and transportation agencies have reinforced that fragmented data is not unique to Broward. Agencies across the country are wrestling with similar questions about legacy systems, limited resources and rapidly expanding amounts of information. But that does not mean a system developed in one region can simply be dropped into another. Every metropolitan area has its own agencies, datasets, standards, technology systems and planning priorities. Expanding an approach like SMART METRO therefore requires significant work around data governance, interoperability and common standards.  

A Broader Conversation About the Future of Planning 

Transportation planning is becoming more complex. Communities are changing. Technology is advancing rapidly. The volume of available data continues to grow. Our profession has an opportunity to think carefully about how we respond. The lesson we have taken from SMART METRO so far is not that AI will transform transportation planning on its own. Technology is only one part of the equation. Good data, collaboration among agencies, professional expertise, public engagement and sound judgment remain essential

Greg Stuart is the Executive Director of the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization