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k <br /> Orange County Transportation Planning Overview <br /> (the end of this document has a list of acronyms) <br /> Transportation planning in Orange County is heavily influenced by three major factors : the <br /> administrative boundaries of different governing bodies , the source of funds for transportation <br /> projects , and state and federal legislation that determines the extent and timing of the county ' s <br /> role in transportation planning . Many organizational layers have a hand in guiding transportation <br /> planning in the County, and with them , many documents . The organizational structure is like a <br /> multi - layered cake , whose layers do not always fit perfectly atop one another . At the base are <br /> the individual municipalities who have jurisdiction over their city roads . Then there is the <br /> Orange County government that helps , at a planning level , to link the individual municipal plans <br /> with the rural areas of the county and with the major highways and interstates ( although counties <br /> have no road -building or maintenance responsibilities in NC ) . The next layer is the State <br /> Department of Transportation (DOT) . They have divided the state into 14 planning divisions for <br /> regional coordination . All of Orange County is in Division 7 , which also includes Alamance , <br /> Caswell , Guilford , and Rockingham Counties . Finally, there are the Metropolitan Planning <br /> Organizations (MPOs ) . <br /> Two MPOs have jurisdiction in Orange County . The Durham , Chapel Hill , Carrboro - <br /> Metropolitan Planning Organization (DCHC -MPO ) includes the municipalities of Durham , <br /> Chapel Hill , and Carrboro as well as Durham County, and half of Orange County. It contains <br /> parts of three state DOT divisions : 5 , 7 , and 8 . The Alamance MPO includes the municipalities <br /> of Burlington , Graham , Elon College , Gibsonville , Haw River and Mebane . Areas in Orange <br /> County not covered by an MPO are under the direction of Division 7 of the State DOT . With all <br /> these governing bodies overseeing different portions of Orange County, the transportation <br /> planning process appears piecemeal . However, there is some regional coordination in Durham <br /> and Orange Counties through the DCHC - MPO . Still , the process is not centralized and differing <br /> goals and priorities among the governing bodies in the County can lead to conflicts between <br /> planning and implementation . <br /> Funding for transportation projects generally comes from the Federal government ( distribution of <br /> money from the gasoline tax ) with some additional contribution from the state and local <br />