ATP Cycle 2 Aims to Fund New Bikeways Statewide

The California Transportation Commission will award grants to 113 of the 617 projects that applied for funding from the second round of the state Active Transportation Program, or $215 million for projects that requested more than $1 billion. This significant unmet need demonstrates why your California Bicycle Coalition continues to push for more funding to the ATP in Sacramento.

After a quick review (judging only from the project titles on the recommended award list), here’s our analysis of the projects recommended for both statewide and rural awards:

• 86{850a63fa8a72bae4d6bfa3f1eda9f619cddace10f9053ede128e2914f9ca5a15} of projects intend to provide meaningful benefits to disadvantaged communities.
• Bikeway-only projects competed well – 14 projects totalling $30.6 million are recommended for awards.  Two grants will implement protected bikeways in the City of Santa Ana.
• Pedestrian-only projects fared well too – 16 projects totalling $31.4 million are recommended for awards.
• Interestingly, the most competitive projects are combined bicycle and pedestrian projects, including complete streets improvements, traffic calming, road diets, multi-use trails, one bridge and one new underpass.
• Over half of the projects aim to provide safe routes to school (SRTS), and 15 of those projects will include a school-based education and encouragement program.
• Education and encouragement programs overall did not compete as well this round compared to the first round of awards when there was a required funding minimum – only 23 projects include these “non-infrastructure” programs, totalling just $5.5 million.
• Planning applications from disadvantaged communities also did not compete well this round – only 6 planning grants are recommended, for $1.3 million in funding.
• Technical assistance for disadvantaged communities will continue to be funded until 2019 through the State Active Transportation Resource Center (formerly the SRTS Technical Assistance Resource Center).

The awards will be formally adopted by the CTC at their October 22 meeting in the Bay Area. An early congratulations to those jurisdictions that are recommended to receive a grant.  The remaining 40{850a63fa8a72bae4d6bfa3f1eda9f619cddace10f9053ede128e2914f9ca5a15} of program funds will be awarded in December based on recommendations from the nine largest Metropolitan Planning Organizations.