Getting Federal Funding – Part II: HSIP

As part of our three part series, “Getting Federal Funding,” the Advocacy Advance partnership continues with a report on the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP).  The series is designed to provide guidance on federal funding programs that are often overlooked for bike and pedestrian projects.  The first report outlined the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program which can be used to fund bicycle and pedestrian projects that replace car trips with biking and walking trips. (photo by gwadzilla)

Part II of this series covers the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP).  HSIP funds can be used for all safety related bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects on public roads or trails, and provides 90 percent of project funds, with only 10 percent coming from local government or other sources.  Unfortunately, HSIP funds have been woefully underutilized since it began in 2006.  By the end of the 2009 fiscal year, $600 million in HSIP funds had not been spent.  This is especially disturbing when you consider that, in 2008, the federal government spent a total of $550 million on all bike and pedestrian projects in the nation.

Many bike and pedestrian advocates are not aware of this resource, and those that have attempted to direct HSIP funds towards bike and pedestrian infrastructure have struggled to justify project funding to their state DOTs.  The HSIP report identifies these issues and provides strategies to address them.  It also provides a number of project examples, program requirements, and state by state funding data.

Read the whole HSIP report.