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Cycling and fashion have hit an uptick in America thanks to many fashion designers getting on board with stylish bike commuter pieces and selling them online, including: bags, helmets and…

In line with a goal to double federal funding for biking and walking, Advocacy Advance is awarding $100,000 in direct grants to four advocacy organizations. Using the grants to tap…

We all know how expensive it can be to fly with your bike. We update the airplane bike fees on our Web site for the National Bike Summit every March,…

The following is a white paper written by the League of American Bicyclists and America Bikes, a coalition of national bicycling advocacy groups. Download the PDF of  “Why Eligibility Isn’t Enough.”
Why “Eligibility” Isn’t Enough
The case for dedicated bicycle and pedestrian funding in the federal transportation bill
Representative John Mica (R-FL), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, recently introduced an outline of his proposed transportation bill. The proposal eliminates all dedicated funding for bicycling and walking – programs such as transportation enhancements, recreational trails and safe routes to schools program – and maintains “eligibility” for these activities only if states choose to spend their funds on these kinds of activities and these meet [undetermined] performance measures and are in the national interest.

As supporters of these programs attempt to preserve dedicated funding for bicycling and walking, they may well hear an argument along the lines of “don’t worry, these are still eligible activities, so if States think they are important they will continue”. While it is true that basic eligibility for federal transportation funds is important (it at least removes the argument that “we aren’t allowed to use these funds for bicycling and walking projects”), all the evidence of the past 20 years and beyond suggests that mere eligibility is totally insufficient: most states will simply stop spending any of their Federal transportation funds on anything related to bicycling and walking.

1. It didn’t work before. In 1991, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) created the Transportation Enhancement (TE), Recreational Trails (RTP) and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality programs (CMAQ), all of which have become major sources of funding for bicycling and walking projects. Before ISTEA, states had the option of spending up to $4.5 million of their highway funds each year on independent bicycling and walking projects (up to a national cap of $45 million), and the funds required NO state matching funds. In the 18 years before 1991, a total of $40 million was spent by all 50 states combined – approximately $2 million a year. Most states spent nothing between 1988 and 1991.

2. States seem to wait for programs to end. The chart below shows how spending on bicycling and walking projects and programs has increased since 1991. Notice the dips in spending when transportation bill expires. While this lack of planning for bike/ped projects may partly be explained by the general level of uncertainty caused by numerous short-term funding fixes (continuing resolutions), there is also a strong possibility that States are hoping these programs will go away in the new bills – and in 1995-96 and 2003-04 there were active efforts underway to eliminate the Transportation Enhancements program.

How many people can say that they turned $3,000 into $2 million? Kevin Hardman and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin can. How’d they do it? With a little help from…

According to a new survey and report, platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) in Bloomington, Minn, has improved employee health and has helped the company save an…

More people are commuting by bicycle every year, thanks to Bicycle Friendly Communities and other motivators like high gas prices. To ensure that motorists and bicyclists are sharing the road…

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) held a full Senate Transportation Committee hearing today on their proposed transportation re-authorization bill. The committee heard testimony from Los Angeles…

In advance of a hearing on Thursday called “Legislative Issues for Transportation Reauthorization,” the U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works has released a three page outline of their…

Does your local transportation agency have a strong project that is multi-modal, non-traditional, and hard to fund through traditional channels? If so, federal TIGER 3 funds might be the right source for it.

Secretary LaHood has announced $527 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) funds. This is the third round of these merit-based grants, hence the short-hand, TIGER 3. Today the USDOT held a webinar, “Lessons on How to Compete for a USDOT TIGER Grant,” which featured several of the administration’s top transportation policy officials, including Roy Kientz, Polly Trottenberg, and Beth Osborne.

Bicycle and pedestrian projects have done well in the first two rounds of TIGER grants. Sixty-eight of the 125 successful TIGER grants included bicycle and/or pedestrian components in their project descriptions. Several funded projects were stand-alone bicycle and pedestrian projects, like the Philadelphia Area Bicycle Network and the Indianapolis Bicycle and Pedestrian Network funded in the first round. Several Complete Streets projects were also funded. See here, here, and here for past TIGER projects that include bicycle and pedestrian components.

Highlights today’s panel are below. Most of the advice is fairly general. However, I did have a chance to ask the panel for advice on how to get stand-alone bike/ped projects funded and how to get bicycle and pedestrian components included in larger projects, and for advice on measuring the impact of the project.