Federal Funding/Policy

When we talk about federal transportation dollars in this space, we most often focus on the Transportation Alternatives Program, since it has a strong focus on funding Safe Routes to School programs and bicycling and walking infrastructure.

The Safe Routes Partnership submitted our official comments for the record on May 16. Read our comments here.

What the US Department of Transportation chooses to measure has an impact on which transportation projects get built in your state and community—and on your ability to feel safe while walking and bicycling to school and in your neighborhood.

At a recent grantmaking conference, one of the speakers emphasized the role of evaluation by saying that if you can’t measure something, it doesn’t matter.  Thanks to a new rule from the US Department of Transportation, all states will now be required to measure and be held accountable for bicycle and pedestrian safety.   

While Congress passed the new transportation law, the FAST Act, back in December, it takes time for US Department of Transportation to update their complicated formulas for how much states and localities get for various programs. Fortunately, that work is done and we now know the state-by-state breakdown of funding available for Safe Routes to School, bicycling and walking projects.

We are now six weeks out from when Congress passed the FAST Act, securing funding for Safe Routes to School and the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) for five more years. Here at the Safe Routes Partnership, we've been spending a lot of time educating advocates about what changed and what didn't in the FAST Act, and gathering as much information as we can to help you access the funding.