California state Active Transportation Program funding announced

AdvocacyCalifornia advocacyFeaturedNotesSafe Freeway Crossings

Aug 12

The California Transportation Commission has published their recommendations for the statewide Active Transportation Program (ATP). This year saw a change in the way that local projects received state funding by pooling the money from previously separate funds, including the Safe Routes to School state funding, Federal Transportation Alternative Program, and others. The 2014 ATP will cover a two-year period from 2014-15 through 2015-16.The 2014 ATP represents $368.079 million in funding capacity for the following program components (a minimum of 25% of all ATP funds must benefit disadvantaged communities):

Statewide (50% or $184.04 million): Safe Routes to School ($72 million with $21.6 million for non-infrastructure)
Small Urban & Rural (10% or $36.808 million)
Large Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) (40% or $147.232 million)

771 applications were received for projects valued in excess of $1 billion, an oversubscription of the program to say the least. This large amount of projects shows that active transportation programs and projects really demand more money than is currently being allocated at the local, state and federal level. However, many projects not recommended for the statewide program component remain eligible for the MPO program component, which will be governed in our area by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC).Of the 13 San Mateo County applications and 18 Santa Clara County applications (31 total), the California Transportation Commission is recommending only 2 of those projects for funding. Congratulations to East Palo Alto for being funded for $8,600,000 of their total project cost of $9,400,00 for the Highway 101 Pedestrian and Bicycle Overcrossing! We wrote a letter of support as this project contributes to SVBC's Initiative to create Safe and Comfortable Freeway Crossings throughout San Mateo County and seeing this overcrossing completed is a particular campaign of ours. San Mateo County will also be funded for their Safe Routes to Schools program.Congrats and we look forward to the regional competition!