How 40 communities would spend $50 million each on bicycling and walking

Dozens of cities and counties in the US are considering how they would each spend $50 million in federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian facilities, if the money ever comes their way.

The exercise is part of the 2010 Campaign for Active Transportation that was launched over the summer by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The group wants to extend the funding to the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program that was ratified by Congress in 2005.

When Rails-to-Trails issued the “Active Transportation for America” report earlier this week, I stumbled across this campaign information on their website. It lists more than 40 communities that have prepared case studies to tell how they would encourage people to bike or walk instead of using their cars.

Facilities

The individual community plans call for such facilities as bike paths, shared roads, signed bike routes, bike lanes, bike parking and more sidewalks, as well as public education campaigns about the benefits of bicycling and walking.

Back in 2005, Rails-to-Trails and other bicycle advocacy groups successfully injected $100 million in federal funding into a pilot program in the federal surface transportation act, which is primarily responsible for building roads.

That pilot program funded $25 million to four communities — Marin County, California; Columbia, Missouri; and Minneapolis and Sheboygan, Minnesota — to make changes that would shifts trips to biking and walking.

Now they're trying to double that amount for interested communities. The transportation act isn't up for allocation for a couple of years, so you'll probably be hearing more about this down the road as the deadline approaches.

The communities

Here are the communities and their case studies for bicycling and walking. The links should open in .pdf documents. If not, you can check out the list and more information at Rails-to-Trails.

• Anchorage / Palmer / Wasilla, Alaska
• Tucson, Ariz.
• Alameda County, Cal.
• Humboldt County, Cal.
• Marin County, Cal.
• Sacramento, Cal.
• San Diego, Cal.
• Metro Hartford, Conn.
• Wahington, D.C.
• Northern Del.
• Jacksonville, Fl. (coming)
• Miami-Dade County, Fl.
• Volusia County, Fl. (coming)
• Chicago, Ill.
• Fort Wayne, In.
• Central Indiana, In.
• New Orleans, La.
• Pioneer Valley, Mass.
       Jeffrey McCullough
       413.781.6045 ext 322    jmccollough@pvpc.org
• Mystic Valley, Mass.
• Baltimore, Md.
• Portland, Maine
• Ann Arbor, Mich.
• Metro Grand Rapids, Mich.
• Twin Cities, Minn.
• Columbia, Mo.
• Greater Kansas City, Mo. / Ks.
• O'Fallon, Mo.
       Craig Feldt
       636.474.2REC    cfeldt@ofallon.mo.us
• St. Louis, Mo.
• Billings, Mt.
• Missoula, Mt.
• Charlotte, N.C.
       Saxby Chaplin    Saxby.Chaplin@tpl.org
• Manchester, N.H.
• Camden, N.J.
• Buffalo-Niagara, N.Y.
• Columbus, Ohio
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Oxford, Ohio
• Eugene, Ore.
• Portland, Ore.
• Blair County, Penn.
• Providence, R.I.
• Alexandria/Arlington, Va.
• Chittenden County, Vt.
• Puyallup, Wash. (executive summary only, coming)
• Seattle, Wash.
• Spokane, Wash.
• Madison, Wis.
• Milwaukee, Wis.
       Jeff Polenske
       414.286.2400
       Jeffrey.Polenske@milwaukee.gov
• Sheboygan County, Wis.