Federal Funding Bill Contains $45M for New Active Transportation Program
From StreetsBlog.org
And a lot of earmarks for trails, complete streets and more.
The massive new federal funding bill making its way through Washington includes $45 million in much-needed funds for active transportation projects — but it’s still a tiny fraction of what American communities actually need.
As part of the $1.7-trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act released Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee announced that it would finally fund the new Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program established under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which will issue discretionary grants to help U.S. communities address dangerous gaps in their bike lane, sidewalk, and multi-use trail networks.
That great news was soured slightly, though, by the dollar figure attached to it. Though Congress has the authority to give the active transport program up to $200 million a year for the next five years, the funding bill would grant it just $45 million for fiscal year 2023 — which is less than 10 percent of the annual $500 million advocates initially requested.
To put it that in perspective, communities seeking to build new infrastructure using funds from the new program (rather than applying for planning grants, which the Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program will also fund) will need to submit projects with total costs in excess of $15 million. That means that just three communities could consume the entire pot of funding, if their poverty rates were high enough to meet the criteria for a 100-percent federal share — and that’s not even taking into account the administrative costs of running the program itself.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
