Congress finally passed the $286.4 billion Transportation Equity Act on Friday. While most of the money is aimed at huge transportation projects, it also spends several billion for alternative methods of travel — namely biking and hiking.
One program in the bill will fund $370 million for recreational bike and hike trails over the next 5 years. There are also more than 150 bicycle and pedestrian projects termed “high-priority.”
You must agree that the bill is full of pork. Back in March, the Rossputin.com blog referred to the Transportation Bill:
“Not only is the substance of the Bill a travesty of pork and profligacy, but the Congressmen have the gall to emphasize its cost. In the “Executive Summary” they crow about a 42% increase in the size of this bill versus the prior one (which covered 1998-2003.)”
The Heritage Foundation also nailed the “pork barrel” label on it. I can't argue. I'm just relieved that more than 100 bicycle path projects are mixed in with the thousands of interstate, bridge, and highway projects in Congressional districts across the nation.
Among other things, the bill establishes a Safe Routes to School program that allocates grants to local communities to improve the routes to schools. The $612 million to be spent over 5 years will help to build sidewalks and remove hazards to encourage children to commute to school by foot or bike.
A much bigger pot of money has been set aside for bike and hike trails across the nation. As reported in a press release on Friday by the League of American Bicyclists:
The bill, known as the Transportation Equity Act-Legacy for Users (TEA-LU), also strengthens three existing programs of importance to bicycling: Transportation Enhancements, Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ), and Recreational Trails. The Transportation Enhancements program has been a primary source of funding for multi-use trails and other facilities, and funding for the program is set at approximately $3.5 billion over 5 years. CMAQ helps communities improve air quality with non-polluting solutions. This program will be available in more communities and funding is set at about $8.6 billion over 5 years. The Recreational Trails program uses off-road vehicle fuel taxes to build trails; it will receive a higher portion of the revenue from those taxes, receiving $370 million over five years, $100 million more than the original allocation in the last bill, TEA-21.
I reported on some of these new trail projects back in March. At the time, 158 bicycle projects were in the bill. They ranged from $9.5 million for a bike trail system in eastern Austin, Texas, to $500,000 for a 6-mile path in Mahoning County, Ohio.
The American Bikes website provides a timeline of some major events in passage of the bill, and links to the House and Senate versions. The bill still needs the President's signature.
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